Elias Stahl, founder and chief executive for HILOS, joins Cheddar News to talk about the process in creating its unique shoes. 

Between Bells

HILOS Brings 3D Printed Shoes to the Mainstream

and between bells back everyone in baker machado in new york and one shoe company looking to help the environment with their latest shoe, Hailo sees making shoes by combining three D. Printing and leather work. The Portland based startup just released their first environmental evaluation of their three D. Printed shoes. The company worked with a team that included Yale University and they're hoping that the findings will inspire the industry to rethink their footprint. So joining us now to discuss is Elias stall, founder and chief executive over at high lows. Elias, great to have you here. Thank you so much for joining us. It's really sort of amazing what you can three D. Print here. But really after this assessment, why is this the technology that's the most effective compared to maybe traditional shoemaking here? Well, thank you baker for having me and you're right, we found a huge amount of potential in this technology but that starts with overproduction so people don't think of fashion as a fast food buffet but ultimately we make a huge amount in advance because it's the fastest and cheapest way to satisfy a lot of people, 24 billion shoes are made every year and one in five goes straight to the landfill. So by making on demand only after a customer orders you're able to save brands $20 billion dollars every year making shoes that no one will ever buy. So there's a huge amount of efficiency to be gained just by not overproducing on top of that. The technologies that eliminate the amount of material waste that goes into traditional manufacturing and allows for complete recyclable itty we found has a huge impact on the footprint of the end product for an industry that is the fourth most polluting industry in the world. That can have a global impact. Yeah, it's incredible to think how much waste is in the shoe industry, which is just insane, especially for a lot of us who have a ton of sneakers at our house. Let's talk about your relationship in working with Yale here. So what did sort of Yale help you out here with when it came to the findings in this? So a team of incredibly talented grad students from Yale's Center for Business in the Environment worked with high lows as well as with our supply chain partners. So we would not be able to do what we do without the incredible support and partnership with partners across the value stream Material partners such as BsF four a.m. And hardware partners such as HP and AM T allow us to develop new applications For digitally native footwear. And they also help provide data with this team of grad students, help us really understand our environmental impact and benchmark against traditional manufacturing. Okay, so let's talk about the manufacturing process here. Walk us through the 3D printing process in all of this. How long does it take to create a pair of shoes or a pair of sneakers here. Absolutely. So I'll actually show you the picture is worth 1000 words. This was our first concept line that Georgia doesn't really look three D printed, looks like it's made from wood. A traditional shoe is made from 160 parts assembled in 250 steps, often 90 days in advance of actually getting to this market. Our shoes are made from essentially five component pieces assembled in 12 steps. This is the 3D printed platform of the Georgia. You'll see a completely different kind of performance and comfort that you can get from 3D printing. But on top of that, it allows you to make 72 hours click to ship so a customer can still get their product as quickly as they expect from a fulfillment center, but it's only made after they click buy. That is so interesting. And just even when you showed that shoe, to me, it does, it looks like a piece of wood, which is just amazing to think that that actually came from a three d printer. Elias, a lot of the big companies like Adidas are getting into three D printing when it comes to their shoes here. Do you think that this is a burgeoning area that more manufacturers are going to start to get into here and that you've just sort of started the tip of the iceberg here. Absolutely. I think that the future of footwear and many other efficient supply chains is three D. Printed. It's not gonna be everything. We're not gonna three D. Print toothbrushes anytime soon. But products like footwear apparel and accessories are screaming for more efficient, more recyclable form of production. And when it comes to making an efficient and effective application for three D. Printing, it really is dependent on patenting new forms of shoemaking that allow this to scale. So that's how close his contribution to this industry is. We've developed new forms of shoemaking, specifically adapted for additional manufacturing And we're helping other brands adopt this technology in their own lines. We don't want to change the industry on our own. We want to help every brand launch on demand. zero waste. Well, let's talk about that here for a moment cause I want to get back to the environmental aspect of this because I feel like that's a key component here because a lot of the fashion industry wants to be net zero by 2030. But we know there's so much waste in this industry besides three d. Printing. What does this industry need to do to cut down a lot of that waste and reach those, those net zero goals goals by 2030. Well, it's all supply chain focused, which is why you're seeing a huge amount of gravity shift towards supply chains. The problem is that brands don't have a lot of control over their supply chains and supply chains. It's like trying to move a mountain, there's a huge amount of inertia their people are doing making shoes the same way they've been making them for 200 years and brands only have so much control over what the factories are doing. So a lot of focus has gone towards materials and material substitution and trying to design for recycling. One of the things that we saw in our case study, which was so surprising to us is that the contribution of recycling the product at end of life was actually a minimal Reduction in emissions and water usage compared to just making on demand. So we saw a 7.25% reduction in carbon emissions from recycling the product at end of life and that's assuming a 100% take back rate, which is very ideal scenario that's because of the energy it takes to actually reprocess materials to reuse. So we think there's more to be done than just creating materials that can be recyclable. There's a huge amount of efficiencies gained from making something close to market only after a customer bias and and new adopt technologies that actually cut the amount of material that goes into producing component parts, which three D printing is so effective that but that's that's how brands are looking to really meet those commitments but they're very difficult to get to and it's going to come from new entrants to the market startups like cars that help brands adopt a completely new supply chain Elias while I still have you, I want to talk about some of the success you guys have had in terms of the recognition, highlights won best in show at South by Southwest and was also among one of the companies for the 2022 pitch winners, which is amazing. What does it mean to be recognized by such a big event like South by here for all the work that you guys are doing well, it was an incredible honor because we stood next to and besides 73 of the most talented startups that I've ever seen and that kind of optimism and actual action to making the world a better place is needed now, more than ever I think, but more than our story, I think it really shows and evidence is the amount of interest and hunger and support for a new economy, a circular economy where we can really allow brands to make only what's needed and take back for a second life to sell more while making less and to really consider how the future is of how we make things matters. And seeing that evidence of South Tyrol is incredibly validating for the team here. Well, congratulations Elias and all the success and all the cool things you guys are working on Elias stall is the founder and chief executive over at High lows