[Report] "250,000 Extreme Tests Until Release"... Inside the R&D Hub for K2 Shoes

The Only In-House R&D Organization in Korea

Introducing 3D Printers and Strengthening Workforce This Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo Yoo-jin] 'Chwi-ing Kwang'

A 10kg weight dropped from a height of 2cm onto an additional floor attached to a machine measuring 50cm wide and 190cm tall. The drop point was on the cushioned sole of a hiking boot. This is the finished product of the 'Alpina' model, scheduled for release as a new spring/summer product by K2 Korea this year. The 'cushioning test,' which analyzes shock absorption by applying an impact equivalent to the load experienced during actual walking to the midsole, was underway. The energy generated by the free fall of the weight was set to match the energy exerted by a 70kg adult walking at 4km/h.

In the adjacent performance evaluation room, an employee wearing the new 'Vulcan' model was walking on an inclined treadmill-like machine. The monitor displayed an incline angle of '39.' They were testing the outsole's grip under various slope conditions.

An employee is conducting a grip performance test in the performance evaluation room at the K2 Korea Shoe Research Institute.

On the 14th, the K2 Korea Shoe Research Lab in Jagok-dong, Seoul, was a cradle of footwear technology. Research on shoes produced by six brands within the group is conducted here. The main tasks are 'performance evaluation' to realize optimal performance and 'quality control' to reduce defect rates. Among domestic outdoor companies, K2 Korea is the only one with a separate in-house footwear research and development (R&D) organization.

CEO Jung Young-hoon of K2 Korea issued a special order in 2016 to "create the best products based on scientific data," forming a research team of three members. Kim Pyeong-gi, Executive Director and Head of the Shoe Research Lab, explained, "Unlike clothing, shoes require high levels of anatomical knowledge and technical experience," adding, "To strengthen R&D capabilities, the research team, which started with three members four years ago, has recently expanded to twelve."

Director Kim emphasized that grip and durability are the two core technologies for outdoor shoes. He explained that the outsole, equivalent to a car tire, incorporates the best and optimal technologies that K2 Korea can achieve. Kim said, "Grip and durability have a large gap, so our challenge is to find the optimal balance between the two," adding, "For durability testing, we even operate a machine that folds and unfolds shoes 250,000 times."

An employee at K2 Korea Shoe Research Lab is working on producing sample shoes using a 3D printer.

The lab uses machines designed and specially manufactured in-house for testing. This is to create an environment comparable to actual field tests. Lee Jung-ho, Deputy General Manager, who was conducting grip tests, said, "Machine tests can yield results completely different from actual hiking environments, so there is a large margin of error," adding, "We created many granite terrains in Korea to increase the discriminatory power of the tests." All K2 Korea products must pass incline tests averaging 39-40 degrees, and some functional products like ridge shoes must pass tests at 47 degrees to be released.

Every year, the company has increased the introduction of various types of testing machines. Following the introduction of a 3D scanner last year, a 3D printer, considered a future technology, was brought in for the first time this year. Using this 3D printer, shoe samples such as outsoles and midsoles are directly produced. The time required to produce samples with the 3D printer is ten days, drastically reducing the sample production period that previously took over a month through external requests.

Ryu Jae-jin, Manager, who was producing samples with the 3D printer, said, "Previously, it took about a month to create a physical sample of a shoe after finishing the design sketch, but with the introduction of the 3D printer, it has been reduced to just two days," adding, "This allowed us to reduce the time spent on design during the 6-8 months of development and increase the time allocated to performance evaluation."

K2 Korea originally started as a company making hiking boots in 1972. In 1987, it established the first mass production system for hiking boots in the domestic outdoor industry. With nearly 50 years of experience, it currently holds the number one market share (30%) in the shoe sector among domestic outdoor brands. It also maintains the top position in the safety shoe market worn in industrial construction sites. K2 Korea plans to expand its product line from hiking boots to trekking shoes, hiking shoes, and walking shoes by leveraging the competitive advantage of its core product groups this year. There is also high anticipation for the Osak series of cooling products, which received a positive response after its first release last year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.