In 1958, Joe Foster co-founded Reebok and helped grow the company to a $4 billion valuation before leaving in 1991. (Adidas bought Reebok for $3.8 billion in 2005 before selling it in 2021.)
Now the 89-year-old entrepreneur is helping launch a new high-tech shoe brand with fully 3D-printed slides, meaning they’re printed rather than assembled from layer upon layer of stacked plastic filament.
It’s also the first commercial shoe designed by AI, the founder says entrepreneur.
Credit: Syntilay
The shoe is the first shoe from the Syntilay brand recommended by Foster. The founder and CEO of Syntilay is Ben Weiss, a 25-year-old serial entrepreneur who previously launched a weekly podcast, an NFT company, and a sneaker brand.
According to RunRepeat, Weiss and Foster on Thursday introduced the lucrative U.S. footwear market, which is expected to generate about $78 billion in revenue in 2021 and reach $104 billion in 2028.
The shoe comes in five colors – blue, black, red, beige and orange – and is tailored to each buyer.
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Weiss and Foster said they plan to produce a few thousand pairs, enough to make Syntilay a household name, before shifting gears and creating unique AI-designed shoes that brands and content creators can sell as their own.
entrepreneur spoke with the founders about how they got into the business, how artificial intelligence is contributing to shoe design, and what Foster learned from Reebok.
How did this partnership begin?
Foster: Ben [Weiss] came to us with an idea. I think it was Ben’s enthusiasm that inspired us. This collaboration has been running for 18 months.
Weiss: I simply reached out and a few months later we met in person and had a great conversation. I just explained the opportunity here.
There is no traditional size with these slides. How do people achieve personal fitness?
Weiss: The shoes are scanned to fit through your phone’s camera app. Our partner Zellerfeld reinforces this method. They have a great way to get a shoe for you that takes measurements from your phone’s camera and custom 3D prints it.
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Can you tell us more about the design of the shoe?
Weiss: The design is so unique that we created its shape with AI. That was the inspiration for what we built. A sketch was drawn by us [human] designer, then we just created a 3D shape from it with artificial intelligence. The patterns on the shoes are also designed by AI; we created examples. We played with many different versions of this. And that’s why it’s so detailed.
Credit: Syntilay
So would you rate the AI as the designer of the shoe, or was there more human involvement than that?
Weiss: I’d say it’s pretty divided. This is the most AI-designed shoe we’ve ever seen produced. It’s a very AI shoe. We still had a human designer helping us develop it and guiding it along the way. I think this is the best thing that can be done in the present situation.
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of 3D printed shoes?
Foster: The advantage is that it accelerates development. You can produce a product in days, and if it’s wrong, you can get a new sample. So development is much faster. Now we’re still learning how much you can develop it and what the process is. The downside is that you can’t 3D print in bulk, but you can get a product on the market and be sure the product does its job.
The side profile of the slides is red. Credit: Syntilay
The top of the shoe is orange. Credit: Syntilay
The bottom of the shoe is blue. Credit: Syntilay
What are some of the lessons you learned at Reebok and how will you apply them here?
Foster: We have learned that you may face problems, you may face challenges, but these challenges are opportunities. We started our business as Mercury Sports Shoes. We couldn’t register it, so we came up with a better name. We also had to change our silhouette because Adidas didn’t like our two stripes and T-bar. We changed it to the vector you see now on Reebok. I guess that’s what you do with anything. If you’re in business, you have to be willing to change, you have to be willing to change. In fact, you need to look for change. If someone challenges you, this is a good opportunity.
How do you hope to expand Syntilay?
Weiss: Now we’re starting with this pair of shoes in different colorways, but it’s a pretty limited run overall. Finally, we want to give many brands and content creators a chance in the footwear space. What we have today is a faster way to make shoes with artificial intelligence and 3D printing. Our approach is to make brand new, original designs for brands and influencers.
A pair of slides. Credit: Syntilay
What is the ultimate goal of this release?
Foster:It took me 10 years to bring Reebok to America. But that changed when he received a 5-star rating from Runner’s World. They wanted us then – America wanted Reebok. We gained trust. Somewhere in this process, Syntilay will gain credibility. It can be very simple. It can be one person. Now it’s just a matter of getting those shoes out there and getting people’s imaginations going, “Wow, that’s cool.”
This interview has been lightly edited and cut for clarity.
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