Two months ago, Nike introduced a custom track spike for sprinter Allyson Felix that pushed the performance and rapid prototyping possibilities of 3D printing further and hinted at the company’s goal of scaling the technology to deliver greater performance innovation faster.

Continuing its focus on 3D printing, the US-based company has set a new partnership with the multinational information technology company HP, aiming to speed up the process in producing more advanced, quality prototypes.

The move builds off of over three years of innovation in the 3D printing and Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) area that has allowed Nike to make and tweak prototypes in reduced time. This process has fast-tracked the creation of everything from the aforementioned track spike to football cleats, such as the Nike Vapor Laser Talon and Nike Vapor HyperAgility. Outside of footwear, it has also played a significant role in disruptive designs such as the Cooling Hood, designed for world record-holding decathlete Ashton Eaton, and the Nike Football Rebento duffle bag.

 As Tom Clarke, President, Nike Innovation, explains: “At Nike we innovate for the world’s best athletes. We’ve been using 3D printing to create new performance innovations for footwear for the past several years. Now we are excited to partner with HP to accelerate and scale our existing capabilities as we continue to explore new ways to manufacture performance products to help athletes reach their full potential.”

Image credits: Nike. Nike Football Rebento duffle bag made with a 3D-printed base