Innovative Design Automation Technologies for Corrective Shoes Development

The paradigm of Mass Customisation (MC) is today fundamental for the European fashion industry. Footwear industry is still labour intensive and companies need solution to reduce costs and remain competitive in the global market. In particular, specialized companies that produce customized medical shoes prescribed for people with feet malformations deal with small batches or unique pairs. This work presents some approaches and low-cost solutions related to foot measurement and CAD data elaboration for facilitating the diffusion of "made-to-measure" products. An integrated process made of hardware devices and customized software is explored and described aiming to increase production efficiency and reduce costs.