Adidas Basketball has revealed the BB.01, the opening product of Project: Radical Athlete Perception (R.A.P.) and the brand’s first performance basketball shoe built on the platform. Positioned as a new approach to making athletic footwear, Project: R.A.P. relies on additive manufacturing to tailor products to individual athletes and to the specific demands of a given sport.
The BB.01 is constructed using a 3D printed lattice that encloses the foot, a structure Adidas says is designed to deliver a customized, forward-looking feel with every movement. The shoe is set to appear on court for the first time at NBA Summer League, worn by Adidas athlete Mikel Brown Jr. during his opening Summer League appearance.
Adidas frames the launch as both a product debut and a statement of intent. “We built Project: R.A.P. around a simple belief that athletes are capable of more, and the right technology can unlock it,” said Alexander Taylor, SVP Innovation Design and Concepts, Adidas. “Just as Summer League introduces the next generation of NBA talent to fans, the Las Vegas event is our way of introducing the future of performance footwear to fans.”
How and When Fans Can Get a Pair
This release is the first time a Project: R.A.P. product has been offered to the public, and it is a deliberately scarce one: 169 pairs will be available worldwide. Of those, 50 pairs are earmarked for the Adidas Las Vegas flagship store, 89 pairs for the CONFIRMED app, and 30 pairs for Greater China.
The rollout begins with an in-store activation at the Adidas Las Vegas flagship on July 10th, where the 50 pairs will be sold alongside an experience that lets visitors observe the shoe’s development and design process up close. A second limited release follows on July 14th through the Adidas CONFIRMED app, priced at $250, aimed at fans who cannot attend in person.
Adidas describes the Las Vegas drop as one step in a longer program, positioning Project: R.A.P. as an ongoing effort to push the limits of what performance footwear can do.
“Our focus on being the basketball brand for the next generation also extends into the latest innovation. adidas’ Project: R.A.P. platform allows us to focus on the individual player needs better than ever. We’re excited to bring to life the first product coming from this platform with the BB.01 – the world’s first 3D printed basketball shoe. You’ll see our shoe on court with our next generation athletes, helping to raise their game to the next level,” said Max Staiger, General Manager of Basketball, Adidas.
Building Shoes Around the Individual Athlete
For Adidas, the appeal of additive manufacturing is precise, athlete-specific fit. Project: R.A.P. is built to tailor a printed lattice to each player and to the movements a given sport demands, closing a long-standing gap between mass-produced footwear and support shaped to one person’s foot, something molded production can rarely deliver economically.
Rivals in performance sport are chasing the same personalization goal. In running, Brooks partnered with HP to fine-tune midsoles down to the millimeter, an effort the brand tied to its belief that every runner has a unique motion path; Swiss brand On scaled its 3D printed LightSpray upper into the Cloudmonster line, developing the form-fitting, athlete-tested structure to trim weight and pressure points for long runs and tempo sessions. Both treat the printed component as a way to shape the shoe to how a specific athlete actually moves.
The same fit-first thinking is spreading to other sports. Spanish startup ATHOS, working with HP and Sculpteo, has produced what it calls the first custom-fit 3D printed climbing shoes; as one partner told 3D Printing Industry, mass customization lets the slipper hug the foot with an ergonomic precision that once seemed unreachable in climbing.
Adidas, which already has history of using 3D printing through its earlier midsole work, is betting a fully basketball silhouette can turn one-off customization into a repeatable competitive edge.
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Featured image shows Adidas Basketball introduces BB.01. Image via Adidas.