Hypsole launches 3D printed cleat guards

Sports footwear startup company Hypsole LLC introduced the first-ever, 3D-printed guards to slide onto cleats and make it easy to walk off-field.

The elastomeric polyurethane (EPU) cleat guards work like removable soles and turn cleats into functional footwear so athletes can walk between tournament fields, head home or run post-practice errands.

Called Tidal 3D Elite, the utility-patented guard even resembles a sneaker when coupled with an athlete's cleat unlike competing products, which are typically stretchable thermoplastic elastomers slip-on covers.

Tidal 3D Elite cleat guards have a wave-shaped silhouette and are compatible with major brands of footwear for football, soccer, lacrosse, baseball, softball, rugby and ultimate Frisbee.

The cleat guards were designed for athletes who don't want to trade style for function, according to founder Jes Christian, a former Division I track and field athlete

"I believe that our guards can have wide appeal among style-conscious athletes, and I believe that's a sizable category," Christian said in an email.

"The Olympics demonstrated the significance of style on a global scale. In track and field, my sport, for example, gold medal contenders and winners were sporting full makeup, nail and hair styles — often with different looks for each race. They were playing with style wherever they had the freedom to do so, on both the men's and women's sides, and that's not just reflective of the Olympic environment. Many athletes across sports and levels of play want to express their own style while competing and training if they can do so without sacrificing performance."

Most people hear the term "cleat guard" and think of sports equipment, which Christian said misses out on a huge opportunity in fashion.

"There's an intangibility to how we've incorporated certain style elements into our guards but, speaking to my own experience, it starts with years of analyzing color, texture, shape, and silhouette across tons of different styles of footwear and other garments," Christian said.

"Beyond that, I now spend a fair amount of time on social platforms exploring how potential customers engage with different styles and trends. Based on those collective inputs, I was able to guide the aesthetic in a direction that I felt confident would land with style-conscious athletes."

Another big distinction is that they fit better, Christian added.

"They are much more akin to removable soles than to stretchable footwear covers, and they provide a sturdy flat underfoot along with more structured side walls to create that true footwear-like feel for many different styles of cleats," she said.

The goal is to protect cleats and floors from wear and tear; save the time of lacing and unlacing cleats; and improve traction, which eliminates the risk of slipping from wearing cleat studs on hard surfaces.

"How you spend your time and energy matters when your performance comes down to inches and seconds. Your guards are meant to help you make the most of all of the above, so you're always one step ahead," the product website says.

Christian competed in the long and triple jumps for Notre Dame. She earned a master of professional studies in sports industry management from Georgetown University in August 2016 and spent time interning and working for Condé Nast (Glamour magazine) in fashion/editorial, Adidas in product marketing, and Under Armour in retail marketing before founding Hypsole in Washington, D.C., in 2017.

"Once the functional requirements of the product were established, the aesthetic — from fit to finish — became a top priority," Christian said.

"I didn't want this product to be just another piece of sports equipment — I wanted fashion and streetwear to be infused into the design visuals. I felt strongly that it needed to look good — and that we needed athletes to want it as much as, if not more than they needed it, because at the end of the day, if it works, but it's not hitting aesthetically — then we're going to be fighting an uphill battle with our target demo."

To balance function and fashion, the guards were designed to follow the natural curve of common cleat silhouettes, while maintaining a firm grip to keep cleats in place when an athlete moves.

An adjustable button-and-strap design lets athletes customize the fit of the guards to accommodate different cleat heights and widths. A heel notch provides a quick and easy way to remove the guards while seated or standing.

"My favorite thing about our cleat guards is the strap. It was such an unexpected design feat for us to overcome and was born out of the challenges we were experiencing previously when trying to make it out of different materials," Christian said.

"To simplify manufacturing, I wanted to make it out of the same material as the rest of the product. That required eliminating attachment mechanisms like Velcro or metal clasps and replacing them with what ultimately became the two-button system we have in place. I love the solution that we came up with which allows for adjustability, which really blends in seamlessly, rather than taking away aesthetically from the upper part of the cleat."

Tidal 3D Elite cleat guards are at the intersection of sports, fashion and technology, Christian said.

"This is a footwear product, and it's worn in the same way someone would wear a pair of sneakers. Shoes that have more complexity of design and more unique materials, often look better, and are better received by style-conscious buyers," she said. "We want to speak to those buyers, and so it was always important from my point of view to meet that higher aesthetic standard."

The product is manufactured in the Asia-Pacific region with a lightweight lattice design for strategic support regions and tough tread for durability.

The manufacturing process, called digital light synthesis (DLS), was developed by the Redwood, Calif.-based 3D printing technology company Carbon Inc. The manufacturer is one of Carbon's production partners.

The process uses digital light projection to cure liquid resin, producing products with functional and visual properties that can't be done with traditional manufacturing processes.

Over the course of a year, the product's original design was modified, and the decision was made to use Carbon's EPU, which is a 40 percent bio-based material, for the entire construction of the athletic cleat guards.

"Carbon's technology was developed to bring about products that push the boundaries of what's possible no matter the markets or industry — and Hypsole is no exception," Carbon co-founder and CEO Phil DeSimone, said in a news release. "We're proud to partner to bring its revolutionary sports footwear concept to life, with Carbon's DLS technology, enabling improved performance for athletes at all levels."

Tidal 3D Elite sells for $75 and comes in two colors — calcite hex and onyx hex — and 10 unisex sizes from U.S. child's size 1 up through U.S. men's and women's adult sizes.