5 Ways That 3-D Printing is Going to Shake Up Retail

Bonus point: "4-D printing," which involves creating programmable matter, is coming too, if not a little further down the road. These will be products designed and made of materials that react and change in response to temperature, pressure and force in their environment. Prototypes of such materials already exist. Imagine shoes that could react to the force of your running by becoming sleek, breathable running shoes, then react to walking on grass by growing cleats and turning waterproof, then reacting to walking to work by becoming dress shoes. Picture shoe retailers adapting to products like these, and all retailers adapting to their counterparts throughout the retail industry, and you begin to see just how different the future of retail might (and likely will) be.