Asics

Best foot forward: Customisation at ASICS

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Asics is racing ahead with customisable designs for its best-selling trainers, using Dassault Systèmes Catia to create comfortable, long-lasting products, as Emilie Eisenberg reports


Like many other apparel companies, sportswear giant Asics is looking to stand out from the rest of the field when it comes to creating personalised, environmentally friendly footwear. Addressing individual needs in such a vast market is no easy feat. To conquer the challenge, Asics has partnered with Dassault Systèmes, opening a personalisation studio and smartphone app that combine technologies in order to enable individual customers to tailor individual products to their precise needs and preferences.

In particular, Asics uses Dassault Systèmes’ 3D CAD software Catia to create custom insoles for trainers, deploying virtual twins to ensure that each insole provides the perfect match for a customer’s foot.

“No two people have the same foot shape,” points out Genki Hatano, lead researcher in the Green Manufacturing Team at Asics. “Now, to provide all our customers with products that deliver a new level of comfort and satisfaction for both mind and body, we are considering more customisation options, such as foot beds that support the underside of the foot, and customisable shoe components.”

Scans are converted into neutral shapes with Visual Scripting

Asics – Leaps and bounds

First, an app is used to scan and capture the foot shape. The data is then imported into the Catia 3DExperience platform, where the scan is converted into a neutral shape using Visual Scripting, Catia’s no-code algorithmic approach to parametric design. This step ensures that an insole can be designed with as much flexibility as possible.

The infill for the insole design is created using Catia Lattice Design, giving a designer control over the thickness of the lattice structure, down to minute details. Multiple contributors are able to collaborate and share models of personalised lattices, using Catia’s Visual Scripting on 3DExperience.

The process is monitored through Delmia Apriso, Dassault Systèmes’ manufacturing operations management (MOM) software. To keep design as sustainable as possible, Asics automates lifecycle assessment studies, using Catia Eco Designer at the earliest possible stage. Eco Designer creates a live representation of the material composition of a virtual twin and calculates the environmental footprint for each product.

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“Personalisation and sustainability are a very important combination,” says Hatano.

Made-to-order shoes reduce waste and water consumption, he points out, and a lifecycle assessment before the manufacturing process begins results in shoes that last longer.

Following the success of its personalised insoles, Asics plans to expand this technology to develop entire shoes customised to individual customers’ feet, and is collecting data and feedback from users in order to develop its production line further.

The company also plans to continue its collaboration with Dassault Systèmes, incorporating virtual twin technology into future customisation projects and helping it to stay one step ahead of its competitors.

Asics
Customers increasingly want made-to-order shoes to suit their specific tastes and needs

This article first appeared in DEVELOP3D Magazine

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