3D打印造出最合腳的鞋墊 一雙定價500美元獲風投熱捧

????如果說2013年3-D打印還停留在技術探索階段，那么2014年則在于如何將這種新奇技術變成實用的商業工具。

????新創企業Sols Systems堪稱這方面的先驅，它利用3-D打印來定制矯形鞋墊。這項業務不屬于投資者通常會感興趣的領域，然而，Sols公司成立剛剛幾個月，就已經吸引了大量風投公司的興趣。

????日前，Sols宣布獲得拉克斯資本（Lux Capital）640萬美元的風險投資，參與投資的還有Founders Fund以及Sols現有投資者羅森伯格基金（Rothenberg Ventures）、Felicis Ventures、FundersGuild以及Grape Arbor VC等風頭機構。去年12月，Sols曾獲得175萬美元的種子資金。

????Sols的商業模式如下：足科醫生可報名在自己的診室使用Sols公司產品。通過Sols的iPad應用程序，醫生能掃描病人的雙腳，隨后Sols利用3-D打印，制造腳的模具以及定制鞋墊，價格要比正常價格低得多，時間也比通常所需時間短很多。

????自從獲得種子資金以來，Sols已經在自己的平臺上與50位醫生一道進行了第二階段測試（即公開測試——譯注）。（它合作的醫生中包括“灰姑娘”整形手術的發明者——阿里?薩德利耶醫生。這項手術旨在使女性穿著高跟鞋更加舒適，《紐約時報》最近有文章對該手術進行了報道。）

????Sols在測試階段的發貨量已達到500雙鞋墊。定制鞋墊的售價由醫生確定，但Sols的建議售價為500美元。2015年，這家公司將推出面向消費者的產品，非處方定制鞋墊的售價將在100美元左右。

????Sols并不是唯一一家把3-D打印作為技術平臺基礎的公司。其它醫療領域的公司還有Organovo，它使用活細胞來“打印”人體器官，而3D Systems公司則在迅速收購3-D打印醫療設備和假肢公司。

????Sols聯合創始人基根?肖溫伯格擁有3-D打印方面的專長。她是幫助Shapeways公司在紐約建立25,000平方英尺3-D打印廠房的團隊成員之一。今年，Sols已經從一個小型的創業團隊壯大到擁有12名員工，還在曼哈頓成立了研發中心。

????肖溫伯格表示，自從Sols開始公開測試以來，對Sols產品的需求之大令她感到驚訝。肖溫伯格說：“一直以來，我們使用的鞋墊與我們的腳型相去甚遠，恰恰表明定制鞋墊大有可為。長久以來，我們對于鞋子與腳型不合現象已經習以為常。”（財富中文網）

????譯者：項航

????If 2013 was all about 3-D printing for 3-D printing's sake, 2014 is about how to take the category from novelty hobby to a useful business tool.

????Leading the charge is Sols Systems, a young startup using 3-D printing to create custom orthotic insoles. It's not the kind of business investors would call "sexy," and yet, Sols has attracted plenty of venture interest just a few months into its existence.

????Today the company announced it raised $6.4 million in venture funding from Lux Capital, with Founders Fund and existing investors Rothenberg Ventures, Felicis Ventures, FundersGuild, and Grape Arbor VC participating. The company raised a seed round worth $1.75 million in December.

????Sols works as such: Foot doctors sign up to use Sols in their offices. Through Sols' iPad app, they can scan their patients' feet. Sols then uses 3-D printing to create a mold of the foot and a custom insole for a fraction of the price and time it would normally take.

????Since its seed round, Sols has done beta testing with 50 doctors on its platform. (This includes Dr. Ali Sadrieh, the doctor who invented the "Cinderella" procedure, a plastic surgery for women's feet that makes wearing high heels more comfortable, as recently highlighted in a New York Times article.)

????Sols has shipped around 500 insoles while in beta. The cost of custom insoles is up to the doctors, but Sols suggests $500. In 2015, the company will roll out a consumer-facing product, which will offer over-the-counter custom insoles at around $100.

????Sols is one of the first companies to emerge using 3-D printing as a basis for a technology platform. Others in the medical field have emerged, including Organovo, a company which prints human organs using live cells, and 3D Systems, which has been rapidly acquiring 3-D printing medical device and prosthetics companies.

????Sols co-founder Kegan Schouwenburg has the 3-D printing chops: She was part of the team which helped build out Shapeways' 25,000-square-foot 3-D printing facility in New York. This year Sols has gone from a small founding team to 12 employees and built out a research and development facility in Manhattan.

????Schouwenburg says that, since Sols' beta launch, she's been surprised at the demand. "I've blown away by what we put on our feet and how far off that is from what our bodies look like," she says. "It only reinforces the fact that a custom solution is needed. Shoes are not engineered to fit, and it's something we've been okay with for however long."