3d printed spike heels for small dolls (80-100cm)

MannequinFan · Post by **MannequinFan** » Thu May 05, 2016 2:53 am

OK, just a little market research.

Last week member SinsuaLuvr brought up an interesting point in my MSB mod thread...

SinsuaLuvr wrote:How about a my size Barbie high heel foot/ankle ....you are likely already heading there!
Which ultimately leads me to.....high heels for this size doll. There is a SEVERE shortage (aka NONE) of high heels for mini dolls!

So I decided to take a stab at coming up with something to address this shortage.

The biggest problem with 3d printing the shoe hollow is the toe. It would fill up with support material that would be difficult to impossible to remove. As it turned out, the solution was to print the platform sole as a separate piece which will make it easy to remove the support material from the toe piece. It also allows the platform sole to be finished separately with a different color/texture.

Not sure about the size/width of the feet on these 80-100cm dolls. These were designed for a foot around 5-1/2" to 6" long (MSB size). The nice thing about 3d printing is that the design can be scaled slightly larger/smaller as needed to fit.

: Heels-small dolls.jpg (487.36 KiB) Viewed 9429 times

The "shell" of the shoe is 3/32" thick with some small (1/4" diam.) posts for dowels.
The heel spike is reinforced with a 3/16" wood dowel...

: Heels-small dolls-exploded.jpg (327.96 KiB) Viewed 9429 times

These are the same heels printed for the my size Barbie mod (rough before sanding)...

: IMG_4017-2.JPG (801.93 KiB) Viewed 9429 times

With MSB foot/ankle joint attached...

: IMG_4020-2.JPG (849.97 KiB) Viewed 9429 times

Just so everyone understands, I'm not a vendor here on TDF so this is not intended to be a sales thread, only market research at this point.
I'm open to becoming a vendor in the future if there is enough interest in these types of things to make it worthwhile.

Ren Dhark · Post by **Ren Dhark** » Thu May 05, 2016 2:59 am

Adorable!

I would be very surprised if there wasn't a market for this.

I know, if I ever get a mini, I'll want her to wear platform sandals!

You're a genius.

Post by **mi6c** » Thu May 05, 2016 4:30 am

Hi MF.

Nice poll, good idea.

I am not in the market for any miniature size dolls, but if I were, you'd likely have a customer sooner than later.

I do however take a different view about "vendor-ship".

Imho - and certainly something that feedback from the forces in charge is required for - what you are maybe going to offer here( and kinda alike the eyeballs with the exchangeable lenses) is an enthusiasts service for interested members of the community.
I do not foresee you becoming rich by opening an enterprise online empire outside of TDF in order to get a meager ROI for your product - and anyone thinking that might want to start making an inquiery into the effort involved in designing this stuff and actually getting it out of the 3d printer, not even mentioning the time involved.

Then again, maybe there is some benefit in vendor-ship as well ... such as a cool coloured name

I guess what I am saying is that whether or not a vendor status might be appropriate for someone offering small amounts of small revenue items that took a long time to be researched and created in the first place is something that should be investigated - and I for one have a direct interest in the result as I may join in on this( not the high heels though

).

Kind regards.

Lika · Post by **Lika** » Thu May 05, 2016 7:12 am

My 100cm DS doll is coming in soon and i would be your first costumer for her first heels because finding heels for her size is very hard to find or none are available yet and your work is amazing keep it up ~!! xD

SinsuaLuvr · Post by **SinsuaLuvr** » Thu May 05, 2016 8:53 am

As I have said before, I would be among the first to order several pairs!

I was researching 3D printer services just the other night for just this purpose! There are several sites that have heels of various form in STL file format. Likewise there are 3D printer hubs that can take these shape files, print a demo in your choice of color and material (nylon, plas, metal, abs). It looks like it would be about $50 a pair going this route. And it may take several rounds of models and mods to get it right. There is absolutely no other product available that can do high heels for 80cm - 100cm dolls (roughly 12cm-15cm in-step).

Don't just stop and closed toe pumps. Look into strappy heeled sandals, open toe heels and heeled boots. I believe there is a huge niche and need out there for these. (See this thread:
http://dollforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=221&t=71165 )

MannequinFan · Post by **MannequinFan** » Thu May 05, 2016 6:46 pm

Thanks everyone for your responses so far.

mi6c wrote: I do however take a different view about "vendor-ship".

Imho - and certainly something that feedback from the forces in charge is required for - what you are maybe going to offer here( and kinda alike the eyeballs with the exchangeable lenses) is an enthusiasts service for interested members of the community.
I do not foresee you becoming rich by opening an enterprise online empire outside of TDF in order to get a meager ROI for your product - and anyone thinking that might want to start making an inquiery into the effort involved in designing this stuff and actually getting it out of the 3d printer, not even mentioning the time involved.

Mi6c, I'm not sure our views on vendorship are so much different.
Unfortunately it's more of a requirement here than a choice if one is going to market/sell things on a regular basis.
As far as getting rich, I should have bought stock in Apple way back when instead of going to school for architecture, lol. Then I'd be rich.

No not going to get rich doing this stuff. This is just a hobby that I enjoy doing and if I can make a little extra money now and then with it then that's just fine.

MannequinFan · Post by **MannequinFan** » Thu May 05, 2016 10:32 pm

SinsuaLuvr wrote: I was researching 3D printer services just the other night for just this purpose! There are several sites that have heels of various form in STL file format. Likewise there are 3D printer hubs that can take these shape files, print a demo in your choice of color and material (nylon, plas, metal, abs). It looks like it would be about $50 a pair going this route. And it may take several rounds of models and mods to get it right. There is absolutely no other product available that can do high heels for 80cm - 100cm dolls (roughly 12cm-15cm in-step).

Don't just stop and closed toe pumps. Look into strappy heeled sandals, open toe heels and heeled boots. I believe there is a huge niche and need out there for these. (See this thread:
http://dollforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=221&t=71165 )

Hey SinsuaLuvr that's a great thread on the shoes! Thanks for all the info.
However, I think for the time being I need to keep things pretty basic. I am by no means a shoe designer. I just found this one online and refined it a little and it seems to be working pretty well.
More complex designs would probably require a different printing process such as SLS which can get pretty costly. I seriously doubt you could print a pair of these pumps I have for $50 at Shapeways. Probably double that at least. I may be able to do some variations using the basic pump design for open toes, peep toes, etc., as long as it can be kept fairly simple.

It looks like these would be almost perfect size for the DS 100cm. I took a scan of my foot and scaled it to 15cm long. The instep circumference is 14.5cm. Just a little tight at the ankle area so I'll need to tweak that a little...

: with 15cm foot.jpg (353.58 KiB) Viewed 9321 times

Ren Dhark · Post by **Ren Dhark** » Thu May 05, 2016 11:15 pm

SinsuaLuvr wrote: Don't just stop at closed toe pumps. Look into strappy heeled sandals, open toe heels

*nods vigorously*

rubherkitty · Post by **rubherkitty** » Fri May 06, 2016 1:50 am

Ren Dhark wrote:
SinsuaLuvr wrote: Don't just stop at closed toe pumps. Look into strappy heeled sandals, open toe heels

*nods vigorously*

Maybe it would be possible to print a base for the sole of the foot with heel where you add your own upper of leather strapping or whatever. The sole form could be sandwich halves that you glue together w/ the straps hanging out. I planned on making some radical foot wear and was going to make the sole form out of steel sheet then go from there, but not everyone has a metal fabrication shop. Having the lower half already printed would clear a big hurdle.

MannequinFan · Post by **MannequinFan** » Fri May 06, 2016 4:14 am

Hey RK that's an interesting idea. Just printing a sole with platform and heel could be a possibility.
I'll have to take a look at that as a future option.

The pump design is finished - widened the shoe opening at the ankle area so it's ready to print.
Here's some variations just using different finishes for the different parts...

: white-metal.jpg (165.89 KiB) Viewed 9253 times

: red-metal.jpg (200.33 KiB) Viewed 9253 times

SinsuaLuvr · Post by **SinsuaLuvr** » Fri May 06, 2016 8:30 am

I really like where this is going! There are a lot of options you can easily do with this "basic" pump/sole-platform concept. As you mentioned the pricepoint is the killer, not many of us or able or willing to drop $100 dollars for a pair of heels. Hell-I never spent that much on a pair of shoes for myself! This is a wonderful project from the heart and we appreciate your passion and artistic skills. I agree this won't make you rich. However should you choose to be a vendor, you should expect to recoup materials, your efforts and then some!

rubherkitty · Post by **rubherkitty** » Fri May 06, 2016 11:26 am

MannequinFan wrote:Hey RK that's an interesting idea. Just printing a sole with platform and heel could be a possibility.
I'll have to take a look at that as a future option.

Feel free to use the idea.
You can find short heels for small feet like this.

: heels 4.jpg (13 KiB) Viewed 9225 times

Which are usually just a molded plastic heel and man made material>plastic strapping.
But even if you were able to heat and bend the plastic sole for a more radical height w/ out it going to hell the heel would be pointed wrong, etc. Plus L-girl heels always have lots of sparkles, bows, etc that would have to be removed and patched over.

MannequinFan · Post by **MannequinFan** » Fri May 06, 2016 3:16 pm

Here's an open toe option that was fairly easy to do with the basic pump.
The toe may be a bit tall for this to look good with the doll's feet, but it's worth a try.

: open toe.jpg (281.5 KiB) Viewed 9158 times

I can also do cutouts! How about an open toe with a diamond cutout on the heel.
Girls like diamonds, right?

: diamond cutout.jpg (143.06 KiB) Viewed 9158 times

rubherkitty · Post by **rubherkitty** » Fri May 06, 2016 7:02 pm

Good idea on the cut outs. I assume the shoes will be for silicone or TPE dolls so the feet should somewhat conform to the shape of the shoe.

MannequinFan · Post by **MannequinFan** » Fri May 06, 2016 10:01 pm

rubherkitty wrote:Good idea on the cut outs. I assume the shoes will be for silicone or TPE dolls so the feet should somewhat conform to the shape of the shoe.

Thanks RK. Yes the feet should be able to conform somewhat to the shape.
I widened the opening at the ankle some as the plastic won't be as pliable as a real shoe.
Looking at the DS 100cm, the feet have a bone and plate. Doesn't look like the plate has a hinge.
Hopefully the toes can bend up for heels.

My next thing is to make the 80cm version of the pumps. Should be simply reducing the design to 80%.
I may have to go with a smaller metal rod in the spike instead of a wood dowel, or keep the spike the same size as the 100cm version.