Fully Customised Football Boot Accelerated by Rapid Manufacturing Experts

Fully Customised Football Boot Accelerated by Rapid Manufacturing Experts
British firm Prior 2 Lever's invention of the first-ever football boot designed uniquely for the individual player is supported by pioneering Rapid Manufacturing research from Loughborough University.

Selective Laser Sintering, an innovative platform technology already used in the International Space Station and Formula 1 cars, now opens up the possibility of personalised, high performance soccer footwear.

Prior 2 Lever (P2L) has combined world-class expertise in podiatry and performance footwear design to create boots uniquely designed to meet the needs of professional and elite athletes.

Having spent many years perfecting the knowledge to create a "corrective geometry" for an outsole individually designed for maximum support and reduced injury, P2L approached Loughborough's Rapid Manufacturing Research Group to help realise their unique invention.

Aided by a DTI grant, the Loughborough team and P2L looked into various manufacturing processes including injection moulding and machining before declaring selective laser sintering the most competitive.

"Selective laser sintering is ideal for bespoke football boots, as such small batches of outsoles are needed for each player," says research director Dr Neil Hopkinson.

"There is no need for expensive moulds or tooling and the CAD model reproduction is so precise