3D-printed shoes could be a great idea given how different everyone’s feet can be. It could save on transportation and logistical costs, and everyone could have shoes perfect for their feet, created much more locally than Vietnam.

However, the cynic in me says that’s not what Nike is doing, or why - they’re doing this because it lets them cut workers. Traditional shoe manufacturing involves human hands at many process steps, often with machine assistance or other tools. This lets them cut out all of those workers and all of that equipment in favor of one machine that makes an entire generic shoe for them to shove onto shelves next to all the other generic factory-made shoes. This is not the future.