Esteban: There are designers who make product, and there are designers who change what product can be. When I first saw ALIVEFORM, it didn’t feel like a sneaker brand. It felt like architecture for the body. Design thinking applied to technology, nature, structure, and movement. What impressed me most about Ping wasn’t the visuals, it was the disciplined curiosity behind the work.
ALIVEFORM didn’t begin as a business. It began as a question: what if. And that question evolved into innovation, then into demand, and only then into a brand. This interview is a window into how true innovation happens in fashion today, not from trends, but from exploration, iteration, and engineering new possibilities into existence.
Esteban: For anyone new to ALIVEFORM, how do you introduce it?
Ping: ALIVEFORM is a 3D-printed footwear brand that’s now expanding into accessories. I studied product design, and around ten years ago I started experimenting with 3D printers at school. Around the same time Adidas launched their 4D shoe. Seeing that technology applied to footwear showed me what was possible, and that’s where the spark came from.
Esteban: So this started as curiosity, not a business idea.
Ping: Exactly. I wanted to make something possible that didn’t exist yet. The business part came later.
Esteban: What did the first phase look like?
Ping: I bought a 3D printer and tried to do it all myself. It took two or three years of experimenting. I printed prototypes at home, posted progress online, and learned through trial and error. Eventually a specialized production house reached out. They said my designs looked like they were “meant for 3D printing” and offered to print a sample. That changed everything because it meant I could stop fighting the technology and start advancing the vision.
Esteban: The right partner appeared because you shared the work.
Ping: Exactly. I didn’t search for them. They found me because I put ideas into the world.
Esteban: When you design, do you start with the concept or the limitation?
Ping: Idea first. I try to imagine what I want to exist. Then I figure out the constraints and engineer around them. If you start inside constraints, you just recreate what already exists.
Esteban: Creativity before feasibility, then engineering to bridge the gap.
Ping: Yes. If a design gets rejected at first, that’s usually where the breakthrough is.
Esteban: Let’s walk through one product. The spiral shoe, where did it begin?
Ping: Spirals in nature. They’re everywhere, shells, galaxies, plants. I wanted to bring that into a three-dimensional structure for footwear. When I sent the first file, the factory said it wasn’t possible. So I changed angles, material thickness, geometry. It took several iterations until it printed the way I envisioned.
Esteban: So the formula is curiosity, impossibility, iteration, breakthrough.
Ping: Exactly. Curiosity starts it. Constraints refine it. Repetition makes it real.
Esteban: How many prototypes per idea?
Ping: In the beginning five or six. Now usually three or four.
Esteban: And cost?
Ping: About 100 to 200 USD per sample depending on weight. No mold cost.
Esteban: Traditional footwear molds cost tens of thousands.
Ping: Yes. 3D printing removes that barrier, which is why it opens doors for new creators.
Esteban: What's the hardest part when you scale?
Ping: Making fifty pairs instead of one. Issues only show up in volume. Structure, comfort, consistency, you only learn by producing and fixing. A lot of this journey is problem-solving, not planning.
Esteban: Explain your production model.
Ping: Print-to-order. Customers buy first, then we print. No inventory, no waste, no upfront stock risk. Eventually, we’ll stock small quantities of best-sellers, but intentionally and slowly.
Esteban: Downside?
Ping: Customers must wait. But people who value innovation don’t mind waiting.
Esteban: The bag follows the same logic as the shoe lattice, right?
Ping: Yes. The lattice in footwear cushions the foot. The lattice in the bag protects the laptop. Same logic, new category. I designed it for myself first, then realized others wanted it. The sling bag collaboration had another constraint, the material can’t be sewn. So we engineered a reversed zipper and internal wrap system. The constraint forced innovation again.
Esteban: Where do you take the brand next?
Ping: More categories, more forms. Footwear, accessories, maybe furniture in the future. And deeper direct-to-consumer. We want a community, not hype. The long-term path is connection and thoughtful expansion, not speed.
The future of fashion won’t belong to the loudest brands, it will belong to the most thoughtful ones. ALIVEFORM is a reminder that real innovation isn’t aesthetic first. It’s curiosity first. Discipline second. Execution third. Then demand shapes the business. Ping didn’t start with a business model. He started with an idea worth pursuing. He followed curiosity until it became innovation. Innovation attracted attention. Attention turned into demand. Demand justified building a business. This is the blueprint for next-generation fashion founders: explore deeply, experiment publicly, solve with engineering, scale with intention, and let curiosity lead — then build the systems that support it. That is how new categories are born.
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