Kickstart: Printing fashion

Fans of footwear fashion have a chance to get their own one-of-a-kind designer shoe.

New York-based Zellerfeld has opened what it calls an "open beta" program for its 3D printed shoes, thanks to a $15 million investment from private equity's Founders Fund.

The move, Zellerfeld said in a Feb. 22 news release, will "help drive the transformation of the $500 billion footwear industry."

"The newly launched open beta program now offers the general public unrestricted access to 3D printed footwear, with each of the 15 exclusive designs being released in limited quantities," it says.

Zellerfeld spent seven years developing proprietary "printers, software, materials and print-farm design" for the program.

Shoe buyers scan their foot with a smartphone, pick a design and send their order. The company says the shoes are fully recyclable, while having them 3D printed on demand, close to home, eliminates "the sweatshops and human rights violations that have plagued the industry."

Being the first on your block with a 3D printed designer shoe while pushing the boundaries of fashion won't be cheap, of course. Expect to pay $250 or more for a pair.

Sometimes companies open in the best of times. Sometimes it's the worst of times. For Missouri-based Bulldog Pipe LLC, it was a bit of both when it launched in June 2020.

Purchase orders, a building lease and equipment were already on the way when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Brandon McIntosh, Bulldog Pipe's director of strategic planning, operations, procurement and purchasing, told PN's Catherine Kavanaugh. It was too late change plans.

But while COVID-19 complicated planning, it also provided a boost in the need for high density polyethylene pipe for electrical and telecommunication conduits as homeowners, schools, businesses and government agencies turned to remote learning and working.

While the lockdowns during the early days of COVID may have passed, the demand for telecommunications infrastructure hasn't and the company is now investing in a second facility, in North Carolina.

Can chemical recycling be done in a more moderate process?

Our sister paper Sustainable Plastics has a report on a new study from the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory that describes a process for chemical recycling that uses far less energy.

The researchers combined the cracking step with a "second reaction step that immediately completes the conversion to a liquid gasoline-like fuel without unwanted byproducts. The second reaction step uses alkylation catalysts — the same catalysts currently deployed by the petroleum industry to improve the octane rating of gasoline," SP writes.

The heat required is only 158° F, or cooler than the setting for chocolate chip cookies.

You can read the story from SP here or check out a release from the Northwest National Laboratory.