Dr. Scholl's partners with Wiivv on 3D-printed shoe insoles

Brief:

Dr. Scholl's partnered with startup Wiivv on personalized 3D-printed shoe insoles that customers can order for home delivery through a smartphone app, according to a press release. Shoppers need to download the Dr. Scholl's Custom 3D Inserts app to photograph their feet and order the customized insoles for $99.
The app maps 400 points of a person's foot to get specifications for the 3D-printed insoles. The insoles ship for free and arrive within 14 days. Dr. Scholl's, which is owned by Bayer in North and Latin American markets, also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Dr. Scholl's and Wiivv introduced the app and 3D-printing serviced at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week. The Dr. Scholl's Custom 3D Inserts app is available for free from Apple's App Store and Google Play.

Insight:

Dr. Scholl's and Wiivv's 3D-printed shoe insoles are another example of a common theme among new products and services debuting CES this year: product customization, direct-to-consumer marketing and greater functionality of smartphone apps. Customization may help Dr. Scholl's add value to its product line and differentiate its brand from less expensive competitors at drugstores, while selling DTC through a mobile app eases the purchase process for consumers, who never need to visit a store to receive their items.

The insoles are the culmination of several years of development after Dr. Scholl's and Wiivv met at CES in 2016, according to the announcement. At that time, Canadian startup Wiivv had started a Kickstarter campaign to raise venture funding for the idea of producing 3D-printed custom insoles. Wiivv may change how retailers sell products, company co-founder Shamil Hargovan told VentureBeat.

3D-printed products connected to a smartphone app aren't limited to wearables. As skincare brand Neutrogena demonstrated at CES earlier this week, the technical integration between mobile devices and custom manufacturing also can design beauty products personalized to an individual customer. Neutrogena introduced the pilot of its MaskiD app that uses a smartphone's 3D camera to take photos of a user's face to make customized face masks. The company plans to 3D-print the skincare masks and ship them to customers later this year.