NAMIC Announces Collaboration with Wiivv at Global Additive Manufacturing Summit to Develop High Performance Biometric Insoles
SINGAPORE—The National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Cluster (NAMIC) today signed a memorandum of understanding with Wiivv, a global market leader in 3D printed insoles based in the United States and Canada. The ceremony was held at the Global Additive Manufacturing Summit in conjunction with Industrial Transformation Asia Pacific (ITAP), witnessed by guest of honour Dr. Lam Pin Min, the Senior Minister of State in both the Transport and Health Ministries, and Ms. Choy Sauw Kook, the Assistant Chief Executive and Director-General of Quality and Excellence for Enterprise Singapore. Wiivv co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Shamil Hargovan represented the brand at the ceremony.
Wiivv focuses on developing solutions that enable mass customization of high-performance lifestyle and tactical products, including footwear and wearables. In collaboration with NAMIC and its network of research performers and strategic partners, the company will embark on the development of its next generation of customized biometric insoles to enhance individual performance. 3D printing is particularly suited for orthotics, with its ability to translate digital designs to direct manufacture of customized supports, based on an individual’s measurements to ensure optimized fit and performance.
Shamil Hargovan of Wiivv said, “It’s a great honour to be in this partnership. We are proud to have this opportunity to bring Wiivv’s groundbreaking technologies and products to the Singapore market. We look forward to a long and productive partnership.”
Dr. Ho Chaw Sing, NAMIC’s Managing Director, said, “Wiivv exemplifies how new businesses should aspire to be, riding on market trends like hypermobility, mass customization and wellness needs, building personalized and highly desirable solutions enabled by technologies like cloud computing, artificial intelligence and 3D printing. We are excited and honoured to be partnering with Wiivv to support their growth plans in Singapore.”
Additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, is one of the key technologies in the Industry 4.0 ecosystem. In Singapore, interest in and adoption of 3D printing has been growing in the industrial sectors over the past few years, notably in precision engineering, marine offshore, maritime, military, aerospace and biomedical. Beyond the industrial sectors, NAMIC is placing big bets on the wearables and footwear market due to increasing mass customization needs. Today, for example, both hearing aids and clear aligner solutions used in orthodontics are manufactured using 3D printing technology.
About WIIVV
Wiivv is a technology company transforming footwear, apparel and wellness for every human body, so that you can move, feel and live your best. Current products—insoles and sandals—are created on-demand for one customer at a time using measurements taken from the award-winning Wiivv mobile app and a smart phone’s camera. In addition, the world’s leading brands and creators use the proprietary Wiivv Fit Technology platform, which combines state-of-the-art computer vision, biomechanics research, artificial intelligence and digital manufacturing fulfillment management services, to scale the customization of their products for the masses.
About NAMIC
The National Additive Manufacturing Cluster (NAMIC) is a pan-national initiative led by NTUitive, supported by Singapore’s National Research Foundation and in partnership with Enterprise Singapore and the Singapore Economic Development Board. NAMIC aims to increase Singapore’s adoption of additive manufacturing technologies to enhance competitiveness in the rapidly evolving landscape of digital industrialization. This is accomplished by nurturing promising additive manufacturing technologies and start-ups, as well as accelerating translation R&D from public sector funded institutions with a focus on commercial applications. NAMIC seeds and enables public-private cross-collaboration, acting as a connector between industry, research performers and public agencies. It also assists companies seeking capital injection either through project joint-funding or leveraging its investor networks.
NTUitive is the innovation and enterprise company of the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
