In winter 2023, I wanted to do a project relating to a new hobby of mine, climbing. I had also been working on my sewing skills, so I combined these two into a project: adding wings to my climbing shoes.
There are many styles of climbing: my favorite is a dynamic style that uses jumps, called “dynos”, where you fly through the air from one climbing hold to another. I thought it would be really cool if while flying, I had wings on my shoes, like the Greek god Hermes.
Material Considerations
I considered if I should use fabric for this, but I wanted the wings to remain semi-stiff, not flap around. therefore, I decided to use flexible TPU plastic, which I could 3d print.
Design Version 1
To make the wings removable, I sewed strips of 3M hook and loop material into the inside of the shoes, and then also sewed strips to the backs of the wings. To make the outlines of the wings really stand out, I just sharpied the raised areas to give a comic book-esque look, as shown below
After doing a test print to determine the flexibility of the TPU, I was still worried that the wings would flap around or fall over due to their own weight. So, to quell this issue, I printed the two wings with a connecting support piece.
Design Version 2
This turned out to make the wings sit at odd angles to each other once they were wrapped around the ankle. So, for the subsequent versions, I eliminated the single print, in favor of printing the two wings separately, with a third bridge piece that I could plastic weld onto the wings once the wings were well positioned. I also went through a few versions of the geometry on the bottom of the wings, as I found it difficult to perfectly match the curvy shape of the available velcro area on the shoe.
Design Version 3
In the process of refining the lower geometry, I discovered the(fairly obvious) fact that the left inside and right inside surfaces were slightly different, so I made the wings asymmetrical, with 4 different wing models for right/left, outside/inside.
Closing Thoughts
While I don’t wear them regularly, the end result came out pretty cool! I will bust these out for Halloween at the climbing gym in years to come!