THE THING WE BUILT:

SoleMate 3D

“Show, don't tell” is writing advice as old as time. So when a potential client asked, “How might we let customers customize their own products?” we figured we’d try something different than the tried-and-true PDF proposal.

Sure, we could write up how textures might work. How OBJ and MTL files work together. Include wireframes showing some potential UI. Maybe even break down the technical architecture across 12 slides with a Gantt chart nobody will read. (And yes, we’ll still do that if you need it.)

Or we could build a demo to show what we’re thinking and let them see it in action.

So we built a thing.

SoleMate 3D in action

How It Works

It’s a 3D 👟 👞 👠 visualizer — a quick demo that shows off some 3D tools we wanted to try, and a little proof of concept to show how we might make an app to create your own custom product.

1. Load a 3D shoe model into the browser

2. Type a prompt like “tie-dye sunset” or “rainbow scales” and watch the app generate a custom texture and wrap it around the shoe

3. Use your hands to rotate and examine the shoe from every angle

4. See exactly what "customer customization" could look like for your product line

Notes from Building

Functional demos beat PDF proposals

Instead of building another deck, trying to find projects we’ve done in the past that kinda do, kinda don’t fit, and making some slides about mass customization possibilities — we built a working prototype in about the same time we’d spend on slides.

We added a few bells and whistles

MVPs and proofs of concept rarely get the extra polish, but it felt right here to show off what we could do. DALL·E generates textures from enhanced prompts, which we map onto our 3D shoe model with proper lighting and materials. MediaPipe tracks 21 points on your hand so you can spin and tilt the shoe naturally.

The real skill isn't using any single tool. It's connecting them so text becomes images, images become textures, and textures wrap dynamically onto 3D models in any browser.

Getting meta

The meta part about this whole thing (this newsletter, this specific prototype) is that we’re showing you our sales process and how we like to get buy-in from Township’s clients by showing, not telling. We’re also showing you how quickly YOU could prototype an idea for YOUR customers to get THEIR buy-in.

Maybe we could even help with that.

Built with ❤️ by Township

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