Creating Gender‑Sensitive, Custom Bike Saddles with Formlabs’ Fuse 1 SLS Printer

In recent years, many industries have challenged gender‑specific design norms, yet gender bias remains pronounced in ergonomic products. 3D printing offers a powerful tool to craft truly individualized solutions.

Industrial design student Tim Schütze discovered this gap during his university studies. For his bachelor’s thesis he set out to advance equality and diversity through gender‑sensitive design, culminating in a custom bicycle saddle produced partly with selective laser sintering (SLS) on the Formlabs Fuse 1.

“I wanted to create something I fully support,” Schütze explains. He chose to focus on the challenges and opportunities in gender‑sensitive design—an area he actively advocates for beyond his coursework. His passion for cycling guided the choice of a bike saddle as the project’s subject.

“Bike saddles epitomise gender‑specific assumptions—treating male and female anatomy as two fixed categories. That stereotype must change.”

– Tim Schütze, Industrial Design Student

The Need for Gender‑Sensitive Design

Ergonomic products are often conceived around normative assumptions. Male‑identified users are typically offered dynamic, heavy, performance‑oriented designs, while female‑identified users receive toned‑down variants.

Schütze argues that basing design on “norms” ignores the vast individual variation in body shapes. “Even with data from 100,000 people, dividing users strictly by gender yields only broad trends. The outliers—those who deviate from the norm—remain unserved,” he says.

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From Idea to Process

Guided by the mantra “We don’t need products, we need processes,” Schütze aimed for a reusable workflow rather than a single saddle. “The end goal was a process,” he notes.

He leveraged modern technologies: personalized data collection, algorithm‑driven design, and 3D printing to realize this vision.

Initially, he recruited around 30 volunteers to capture ergonomic data. Participants sat on prototype saddles, followed instructions, and had their seating posture photographed from specific angles.

The captured images were processed with the Structure‑for‑Motion method, converting 2‑D shots into 3‑D point clouds. These point clouds quantified distances between sit bones and pressure‑point dimensions, forming the foundation for each saddle model.

“Even with this modest sample, no clear trend emerged. The need for customization is undeniable.”

– Tim Schütze, Industrial Design Student

The final saddle comprises two 3‑D printed cushions, a base printed from Nylon 12, and a rail.

For his thesis, Schütze produced three distinct models—all featuring a 3‑D printed cushion, base, and rail.

3D Printing as a Personalization Tool

From the outset, Schütze integrated 3‑D printing into the workflow. “I wanted to be hands‑on and guide the process myself,” he says.

“3‑D printing is essential for the future, offering unmatched accessibility compared to traditional manufacturing.”

– Tim Schütze, Industrial Design Student

He began with an FDM printer for cost‑effective, rapid production of the elastic cushions, using Shore 72A TPU. However, FDM proved unsuitable for the saddle base due to print quality, support removal, and material properties.

Seeking a robust alternative, Schütze consulted Formlabs’ Berlin team. “They responded positively and helped us transition to SLS for the base,” he recalls.

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To meet the required resilience and quality, Schütze and the engineering team decided to print the base with SLS. After a tour of the Berlin office, he removed the freshly printed parts from the Fuse 1 himself. “The first results were already amazing,” he recalls.

The base was fabricated from Nylon 12, prized for its high tensile strength, ductility, and stability—critical for a saddle’s performance.

Schütze personally tested the SLS‑printed saddle for several weeks, accepting the risk of breakage. “Everything worked wonderfully. It impressed me deeply,” he says.

After five intensive months of data collection and prototype refinement, the process culminated in May with three fully individualized, ready‑to‑use saddles printed on the Fuse 1.

At the conclusion of his thesis, Schütze presented three gender‑sensitive, individualized bicycle saddles and an open‑source workflow for others to adopt.