German platform Zellerfeld, recognized for its absolutely 3D printed footwear, has acquired Swedish firm Volumental, a specialist in foot scanning and shoe becoming. The deal was introduced in June 2026. It marks a major step within the relationship between the 2 firms, as Zellerfeld had beforehand made a strategic funding of 950 thousand {dollars} in Volumental.
Scanning that adjustments the way in which individuals purchase footwear
It’s price asking why an organization that designs and prints its personal footwear utilizing machines would wish to amass Volumental, a agency specializing in exact foot scanning and shoe matching. To grasp the logic behind the deal, it helps to take a look at Volumental itself first. The corporate has spent a decade growing scan-to-fit expertise, during which a buyer scans their ft and an algorithm factors them to the precise measurement and mannequin of shoe. The entire course of takes just a few seconds. The scanner collects ten totally different foot measurements, and the factitious intelligence behind the FitEngine system compares them towards information from tens of millions of earlier purchases.
The answer works each in bodily shops and on a telephone, so a buyer can scan their ft at house and purchase footwear on-line with much more confidence within the measurement.
From smartphone scans to in-store precision
There are two choices for scanning your self. The primary turns into accessible as soon as the cellular app is put in. The scan works with out LiDAR sensors, relying as an alternative on exactly monitoring the telephone digital camera’s 3D place because it strikes across the foot. A number of images from the precise angles are sufficient for the algorithm to generate measurements and proposals.
The browser primarily based model requires no app set up in any respect. A easy smartphone scan is sufficient, and the answer integrates instantly into the retailer’s on-line retailer, engaged on each Android and iOS.
Even so, essentially the most correct end result nonetheless comes from a scan carried out in retailer. It’s carried out on stationary self-service scanners, the place the client stands on a platform fitted with specialised sensors, giving increased precision than a telephone scan. Volumental’s personal CEO has identified that house scanning shouldn’t be meant to interchange the in-store scanner, which stays extra correct, nevertheless it makes the transfer from scan to on-line buy significantly simpler.
Volumental’s expertise has to date served two varieties of firms, for 2 totally different functions. Sportswear manufacturers akin to New Stability and Hoka used the foot scan to match clients with the precise measurement from an present retailer catalog. Zellerfeld and Vivobarefoot went a step additional, utilizing the identical information to design a shoe from scratch, tailor-made individually to a selected foot. The size of Volumental’s operation is appreciable: greater than 66 million ft scanned and a presence in over three thousand shops worldwide.
Sneakers that haven’t any commonplace sizes
Zellerfeld sits on the opposite facet of the identical downside. The platform produces absolutely 3D printed, monolithic footwear, that means they’re comprised of a single piece relatively than separate elements glued and stitched collectively. Each shoe is designed from the bottom up for a selected particular person, primarily based on a scan of their foot, which is why conventional measurement charts lose their relevance right here.
The corporate has additionally constructed its enterprise round an open design platform. Fashions are created by impartial designers from all over the world, whereas Zellerfeld handles solely manufacturing and distribution. Consequently, its catalog grows sooner than that of conventional footwear firms, which have to take care of their very own in-house design groups.
Why the info issues greater than the expertise
That is the place the true cause for the acquisition is available in. From the beginning, Zellerfeld wanted exact foot scanning for its enterprise mannequin to work in any respect. With out correct information a few buyer’s foot, printing an individually fitted shoe is unnecessary. Till now, the corporate relied on Volumental as an exterior accomplice. Now it’s integrating that expertise instantly into its personal platform.
This transfer was not a shock. Again in Might 2025, Zellerfeld had already made a strategic funding of 950 thousand {dollars} in Volumental. The connection between the 2 firms was already properly established by then, so the complete acquisition appears like a pure continuation relatively than a sudden choice.
The worth of 66 million foot scans
The best worth of this deal, nonetheless, lies within the information. With greater than 66 million scanned ft, it’s the largest dataset of its type on this planet, and an enormous useful resource on simply how different the human foot really is. For a corporation that designs footwear individually for each buyer, that useful resource means higher coaching for its personal match algorithms and extra exact predictions of how a given shoe geometry will behave throughout totally different foot varieties.
The acquisition opens up different potentialities too. Zellerfeld might now lengthen Volumental’s retail presence to its personal merchandise, providing foot scanning and shoe printing beneath one roof. It might additionally additional develop the at-home scanning resolution, permitting clients to order printed footwear with out ever visiting a retailer, whereas nonetheless being assured the match will probably be exact.
What this adjustments in apply
Bringing scanning and 3D printing beneath one roof is greater than a easy expertise consolidation. Till now, the footwear business handled foot measurement and shoe manufacturing as two separate steps, usually dealt with by totally different firms fully. Zellerfeld is now closing that loop beneath a single roof.
