On Aug. 19, Nike unveiled the Air Max 1000, the brand’s first fully 3D-printed trainer. The shoe was developed in collaboration with Zellerfeld, a German start-up that specialises in 3D-printed footwear and has offices in Hamburg and New York.
The shoe is made from ZellerFoam, a flexible material developed by Zellerfeld specifically for shoe manufacturing. The shoe has no seams or laces and is said to be extremely lightweight. Different material densities and properties are created solely through additive manufacturing using fused filament fabrication (FFF) in various areas of the shoe. This results in breathable upper material and a stable sole made from the same material. The characteristic Air Max heel area with a visible air cushion remains unchanged in appearance – a nod to the original Air Max 1 model from 1987.
The first prototype of the sneaker was unveiled in November 2024 at the ComplexCon Festival in Las Vegas, alongside the announcement that the shoe would be launched in summer 2025. After months of speculation on social media about whether the shoe would ever be produced, sales began on Aug. 19 at 6 pm. A pair cost around €180 on Zellerfeld’s website. The shoe sold out in just a few hours.
“As an innovator, what excites me most about the Air Max 1000 are the new solutions we can implement with state-of-the-art manufacturing processes,” says John Hoke, Nike Chief Innovation Officer. “Control, precision and expression are qualities that are crucial to both sports and design. When these three factors — control, precision, and expression — are combined, the future of our product is limitless.”
A whole range of innovative production processes can be linked to 3D production, promising great potential for the future. These range from waste reduction – only the required materials are printed – to production on demand and the manufacture of custom-made shoes. The shoe is also recyclable as it is made from a single material.
