[from_elsewhere]

Lastmaking is much more complex than it might sound. It sounds like you're hinting at an easier method of last design, but printing a replica of a foot doesn't give you a last -- it needs to be sculpted to fit the foot throughout the day, with appropriate adjustments for foot expansion, stretching, length, etc.

The last also has an enormous impact on the external appearance of the shoe. A custom dress last and a custom workboot last made for the same foot will differ signigicantly, and not in a way a computerized process could easily adjust for. (I'm sure it could be done, but it would take a concerted effort by someone with substantial resources and access to tons of feet to measure and study.)

The limiting factor isn't in last production, but rather design. And that's not something that 3d printing will help.

[jessaustin]

That's really interesting, but I'm not convinced that automation has no role here. When a human sculpts a last, she must be using some techniques and rules of thumb, even if a large part of the craft is "by eye". It seems that "starter" or "template" lasts could be produced using foot scans and whatever rules the sculptor will divulge. Then the sculptor could use the templates in making the final lasts...

[Retric]

Sure, but automation is not free. Supose you could design a machine to make it twice as fast for 10 million and sell them at 10,000$ a pop. Your world wide market would need to be ~1,000 of them a year which is probably not even close to realistic. You can't really charge more as the hand made approach is reasonably fast and nobody is going to dump 20+K to buy one if it's only saving the, a few hours a week.

PS: Feel free to play with the numbers but there is a reason so much of the world is sill not automated.

[jessaustin]

That explains why this wasn't done back in the industrial age. Lots of people seem to think that manufacturing 3D objects is going to get much easier soon.