System for manufacturing mould-based equipment for direct injection production of footwear and a method for manufacturing footwear

A system for manufacturing equipment for direct injection production of a footwear, the system comprising:

• a design facility arranged to provide a footwear design and mold descriptive data based on the footwear design for manufacturing of a mold corresponding to a sole part of the footwear, the mold including a basic direct injection mold and direct injection mold inserts;
• a mold manufacturing facility arranged to manufacture the basic direct injection mold based on the mold descriptive data provided by the design facility;
• a last manufacturing facility arranged to manufacture a last corresponding to the footwear design;
• and
• a remote footwear manufacturing facility arranged to additively manufacture the direct injection mold inserts based on the mold descriptive data provided by the design facility,
• wherein the basic direct injection mold and the direct injection mold inserts are combined into the mold,
• wherein the mold is combined with the last to manufacture the sole part of the footwear corresponding to the footwear design at the remote footwear manufacturing facility, and
• wherein the mold descriptive data are provided from the design facility to the remote footwear manufacturing facility by means of a public data network.

A method of manufacturing footwear by a direct injection process, the method comprising steps of:

• providing a footwear design and mold descriptive data by a design facility for manufacturing of a direct injection mold corresponding to a sole part of the footwear;
• providing a basic direct injection mold manufactured at a mold manufacturing facility based on the mold descriptive data;
• providing a last corresponding to the footwear design manufactured at a last manufacturing facility;
• communicating the mold descriptive data from the design facility to a remote footwear manufacturing facility by means of a public data network;
• manufacturing direct injection mold inserts at the remote footwear manufacturing facility based on the mold descriptive data;
• combining the direct injection mold inserts with the basic direct injection mold at the remote footwear manufacturing facility to obtain a mold;
• and
• manufacturing by the direct injection process the footwear according to the footwear design at the remote footwear manufacturing facility utilizing the mold and the last.