Guides
How custom printed shoes actually work
Notes from inside the pipeline — the geometry, the file rules and the constraints nobody mentions in a product photo. Written from the same panel data our designer and printer use, with the real numbers rather than approximations.
How artwork gets split across a shoe
An eighteen-panel sneaker is eighteen separate prints. Where the sampling windows sit, how a flat image survives being cut into panel shapes, and the four ways designs break at a seam.
MeasurementsHow much a shoe panel enlarges your artwork
All 66 panels measured: median enlargement 2.91×, worst 4.79×, and the file width each one actually needs — a median of 1,673 pixels, a worst case of 2,916. Why a 4.8× ratio does not mean a 4.8× file, and where the practical cut-off sits.
File preparationHow to prepare an image for printing on a shoe
Size, colour space, background, type, aspect ratio, format — the six settings that decide whether a file prints cleanly. Includes a pre-flight checklist you can run through in a minute.
Craft notesWhy printing a shoe is harder than printing a shirt
Curvature that cannot be flattened, seams that eat the edge of every panel, and a substrate that is not paper. Why continuous full-bleed footwear stayed rare, and what we promise instead of seamlessness.