Koobz, a US on-demand footwear maker, runs its production on a fleet of Bambu Lab printers, mainly the H2D series, printing complete shoes in recycled-grade TPU. According to a Bambu Lab case study, the fleet has grown from about 50 to roughly 100 machines, with more than 500 planned by the end of 2026. The company says it avoids tooling and can compete on cost with overseas factories.
Key facts
Fleet grew from about 50 to roughly 100 printers, over 500 planned by end of 2026
Printers are mainly Bambu Lab H2D, printing recyclable TPU
Target: more than 200,000 pairs per year in the near term
Funded by a 7.2 million dollar seed round, factory in Ventura, California
Context TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane) is a flexible, durable thermoplastic that can be printed with FDM and is used here for the entire shoe.
What does Koobz do?
Koobz is a US on-demand footwear manufacturer positioned as a Shopify for shoes. It offers brands, creators and influencers a platform that combines design, manufacturing and logistics. Instead of moulds, tooling and inventory, it relies on large-scale 3D printing, so a footwear concept can go from idea to sale in days. After a 7.2 million dollar seed round, the company moved from a garage to a 10,000 square foot factory in Ventura, California.
Why a consumer-class printer fleet?
According to the case study, industrial additive manufacturing systems offered the needed reliability but at high cost and with long deployment cycles. Consumer printers were affordable but were seen as unable to support round-the-clock operation at commercial quality. Koobz chose Bambu Lab printers, mainly the H2D series, because they could be added unit by unit to a print farm. They print recyclable TPU, and the company runs its own slicer developed for footwear geometry and TPU behaviour.
What are the reported results and plans?
The fleet grew from about 50 to roughly 100 printers, with more than 500 planned by the end of 2026 and several thousand in the long term. The near-term target is more than 200,000 pairs per year. Koobz states that development time fell from up to 18 months to days and that US production can compete on cost with overseas factories. Next steps include robotics and AI automation for part removal and post-processing, aiming at a dark factory producing two to four million pairs per year, plus patent applications on footwear-specific slicing.
What it means
The account comes from a printer vendor, so the cost parity and throughput claims are unverified. Still, it shows a model where capacity grows in small, cheap steps and the process know-how sits in software, here a custom slicer. For small and mid sized European manufacturers, the open questions are per-part cost including labour for part removal and post-processing, consistency across hundreds of machines, and what quality control is needed for wearable products. Targets of several thousand machines are a long-term ambition, not a result.
Frequently asked questions
Which printers and material does Koobz use?
Koobz mainly uses Bambu Lab H2D series printers and prints complete shoes in recyclable TPU, using its own slicer developed for footwear.
How big is the Koobz print farm?
It has grown from about 50 to roughly 100 printers, with plans to exceed 500 by the end of 2026 and reach several thousand over the long term.
What cost and time claims does Koobz make?
Koobz says development time fell from up to 18 months to days and that US production can compete on cost with overseas factories. These claims come from a Bambu Lab case study.
