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Troy Nachtigall

From EverybodyWiki Bios & Wiki


Troy Nachtigall
BornUnited States
🏳️ NationalityAmerican
💼 Occupation
Designer, design researcher, professor
👔 EmployerAmsterdam University of Applied Sciences
Eindhoven University of Technology
Known forUltra-personalized 3D-printed footwear; data as design material; living fashion; robotic knitting; circular textile systems
🌐 Websitetroykyo.net

Troy Nachtigall is an American designer, design researcher, and professor working at the intersection of fashion, computational fabrication, and data science. He holds the position of Chaired Professor of Fashion Research & Technology at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS/HvA), where he leads the Fashion Research & Technology research group at the Amsterdam Fashion Institute (AMFI).[1][2] He also serves as Assistant Professor in the Department of Industrial Design at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e).[3] Nachtigall is known for pioneering research in ultra-personalized 3D-printed footwear, data-enabled circular design, robotic knitting, and the integration of living biomaterials into fashion.

Early Life and Education

Troy Nachtigall grew up in the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming and Colorado before his studies and careen in ICT, fashion design, and research.[4] He moved to New York City and earned his degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) at the State University of New York.[5] He subsequently worked in digital media at Viacom [disambiguation needed](encompassing MTV, Comedy Central, and BET), where he developed new methods of communication and digital connectivity.[6]

In 2002 he moved to Florence, Italy, where he worked as a designer for major fashion brands — including Hugo Boss, Calvin Klein, Jean Paul Gaultier Jeans, Dan Ward, and Emilio Cavallini — and became one of the co-founders of the Florence Fab Lab, an early integration of digital fabrication into the fashion industry.[4][6] During this period he also taught at the IUAV University of Venice, Sapienza University of Rome, the Instituto Europeo di Design (IED) Florence, and ISIA Florence.[2][7]

Academic Career

PhD at TU/e and the Wearable Senses Lab (2015–2019)

Nachtigall joined the Wearable Senses Lab at Eindhoven University of Technology in 2015 as a design researcher, within the ArcInTexETN (Architecture, Interaction Design, and Textiles European Doctoral Network) — a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Horizon 2020-funded doctoral network. His research title was Ultra Personalised Product Service Systems and the Negotiation of Product Features.[4][8] He undertook secondments at UdK Berlin (autumn 2016) and Philips Lighting (autumn 2017).[4] He completed his PhD in December 2019.[5][9]

In a 2019 interview with Cursor, the TU/e magazine, Nachtigall described his core research conviction: "I would like to change how fashion is made. Fashion is the second largest polluting industry, after agriculture... if you 3D print shoes and use data in them, the data can help you decide 'Do I need a new pair of shoes? Has the material worn out?'"[10]

During this period, he gained international attention in 2015 when he co-created the 3D-printed shoes worn by Dutch Education Minister Jet Bussemaker at Prinsjesdag (the Dutch parliamentary opening day), working alongside fashion designer Pauline van Dongen and industrial designer Leonie Tenthof van Noorden.[11][12] The shoes were fabricated from Filaflex — a flexible filament by Spanish firm Recreus — and took approximately 100 hours to print. Nachtigall told Dezeen: "Using the algorithms that Leonie came up with, we invented a shoe that is stable where it needs to be stable, and soft where it needs to be soft. They're comfortable, and comfortability was our main goal."[11] Minister Bussemaker described them as the most comfortable pair of shoes she had ever worn.[13]

Postdoctoral Research at Aarhus University

Following his PhD, Nachtigall undertook postdoctoral research in co-design and shape-change at Aarhus University in Denmark.[5][9]

Professorship at AUAS/HvA (2020–present)

In April 2020, Nachtigall was appointed Chaired Professor (Lector) of Fashion Research & Technology at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, leading the research group within AMFI.[5][14][15] In this role he chairs the Fashion Research & Technology group, exploring emergent future manufacturing, embodied interaction, and socio-technical practice with staff and students of the Amsterdam Fashion Institute, the Digital Design Masters programme, and the Applied Artificial Intelligence Centre.[3]

He continues to hold a concurrent position as Assistant Professor at TU/e's Department of Industrial Design.[3][2]

Research and Practice

Nachtigall's research is unified by the concept of data as a design material — using sensor data, body scans, and computational methods to enable garments and footwear that are uniquely fitted, iteratively improved, and designed for long-term circularity.[2][7] His mission, as described on his personal website, is "rewriting the operating system of fashion — transforming garments into dynamic, data-responsive infrastructures that learn from wear, foster repair, and evolve with their users."[16]

Ultra-Personalised Footwear: Solemaker and ONEDAY Shoes

The Solemaker project is among his most recognized works: a platform for generating personalised 3D-printed shoe soles from usage data collected through embedded sensors, designed so that all stakeholders — manufacturers, designers, stylists, brands, and wearers — co-create the shoe iteratively.[10][17] The project received EU Horizon 2020 WEARSustain funding.[17] The related ONEDAY Shoes project provided a maker toolkit enabling people to co-manufacture personalised shoes in a single day, addressing how co-production changes the relationship between consumer and product.[18]

In November 2024, Wired magazine featured Nachtigall in a major article by journalist Carlton Reid titled "Big Sneaker Brands Promised a 3D-Printed Revolution. These Are the Disrupters Making It Happen".[13] Nachtigall stated: "We're witnessing a shift. Like in the 1950s with shoes, when the Dutch took the shoe industry out of the Netherlands and moved it to Asia, a similar shift could happen soon in production techniques and the use of new materials."[13] He predicted: "Disruptive 3D-printing footwear firms are now working on printing the behavior of the shoe, printing the bounce, the flexibility, and controlling all of that very deeply. This will make for better shoes."[13] He also noted challenges for large brands: "3D-printed shoes are cool, but only a small percentage of us are so obsessed with them that we would buy such shoes without hesitation... The printed aspect of footwear is interesting to them as a development, but the profits to be made aren't fat enough so they'll continue to consider it as a fun technology but not one they will ever commit to."[13] On data science and footwear: "Footwear is a beautiful area to work in... it brings together so many different considerations at the same time, from aesthetics to plasticity, as well as elasticity of materials. Add in AI and we will soon be dealing with the complexity of human locomotion in a way that is far superior to anything we've seen before."[13]

Living Fashion and Biomaterials

In collaboration with TU/e Associate Professor Oscar Tomico, Nachtigall has developed research into "living fashion" — footwear and garments that incorporate biological materials capable of renewal. Their most prominent project involves kombucha-based biosoles: growing a SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast) biopolymer film around a 3D-printed shoe structure to create a biodegradable sole that can be re-grown by returning the shoe to a kombucha bath.[19][20] Prototypes were exhibited during Dutch Design Week 2025.[20] Nachtigall has described the concept: "You can grow such a biological layer around the same shoe over and over again. You just put it back in the kombucha."[20]

Wearable Data Studio

At AMFI, Nachtigall founded and leads the Wearable Data Studio, which experiments with digital craftsmanship, robotic knitting, and computational fabrication to explore the convergence of craft and code.[16][21] The studio is home to several research labs, including the 3D Robotic Knitlab, the Physical-Digital Textile Testing Lab, the Transforming Ownership Lab, and the Textile Ecosystem Living Lab.[16]

Circular Systems and Digital Product Passports

Nachtigall is a leading researcher in circular textile systems, developing practical toolkits, software, and frameworks shared in professional, educational, and scientific contexts.[9][22] He is a core member of the NewTexEco (New Textile Ecosystems) research community — a collaboration between AUAS, ArtEZ, and Saxion focused on accelerating the transition toward a sustainable textile value chain.[23] As part of this community, he co-developed the Loopholes Circular Innovation Roadmapping Toolkit, a set of 50+ strategic maps covering digitalisation, sustainability, business models, and chain collaboration.[24]

He is also a core contributor to the Erasmus+ AEQUALIS4TCLF project, a blueprint initiative involving partners across eight European countries to transform skills development in the textile, clothing, leather, and footwear (TCLF) industries,[25][26] and to the Erasmus+ Fashion and Textile Transitions project.[15]

Fashion Tech Farm

Nachtigall is a founding researcher affiliated with the Fashion Tech Farm in Eindhoven, an innovation hub co-founded by Marina Toeters that provides shared space and machines for collaborative fashion and textile innovation.[16] Together with Toeters and Loe Feijs, he co-authored the foundational paper "Creating an Environment to Fight the Fashion System: Fashion Tech Farm" at DeSForM 2023.[16]

Industry Collaborations

Prior to his academic career, Nachtigall worked as a designer for the Warnaco Group, contributing to brands including Hugo Boss, Calvin Klein, and Jean Paul Gaultier Jeans.[2][5] He has also collaborated on projects with Apple, Microsoft, Fendi, and Beyoncé.[2] His work has been featured in Italian Vogue and the industry forecasting platform WGSN.[5]

Awards and Recognition

  • ISWC 2017 Design Exhibition Award (Functional Category) for EVA Moccasin: Creating a Research Archetype to Explore Shoe Use[27]
  • Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow, ArcInTexETN, EU Horizon 2020[4][8]
  • ISWC Design Exhibition Chair (2014–2015)[28]
  • Juror, 1st Munich Fashion Award (mcbw 2025)[29]
  • Featured in Wired magazine (November 2024) as one of the disruptors making the 3D-printed shoe revolution happen[13]
  • Speaker at Business of Design Week (BODW) Hong Kong 2023[30]
  • Featured as a CLICKNL 60th anniversary case study on Dutch design research[30]
  • Research featured in Dezeen, Italian Vogue, WGSN, and MaterialDistrict[11][5][19]

Selected Publications

A full list of publications is available at troykyo.net/publications.html and via his Google Scholar profile. As of 2026, his work has accumulated 266 citations (183 since 2021) with an h-index of 9 and i10-index of 9.[31]

2025

  • "Systemic Value Chain Transformation in the Textile, Clothing, Leather, and Footwear (TCLF) Sector." Troy Nachtigall et al. Working Paper, December 2025.
  • "A Language of One's Own: Annotations and Layering as Design Material." DIS '25: Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, July 2025. DOI: 10.1145/3715336.3735423
  • "Knitting with Unknown Trees: Assembling a More-Than-Human Practice." DIS '25: Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, July 2025. DOI: 10.1145/3715336.3735431
  • "Technical Analysis for Electro-Sensory 3D Foot Scanning in a Shoe." PETRA 2025: Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Pervasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments, June 2025. DOI: 10.1145/3733155.3733210
  • "From Glitches to Fixes: Reflective Analysis of the Loopholes Toolkit." Conference Presentation, June 2025.

2024

  • Max Alberts, Troy Robert Nachtigall, Zjenja Doubrovski, Daniel Saakes. "From Dribbling Honey to Non-planar 3D-Printing: Coiling Becomes Craft." Companion Publication of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, 328–332. DOI: 10.1145/3656156.3665434
  • Troy Nachtigall, Lorenzo Masini. "Bumping Elbows: from 3D Body Scans to 3D Knitting." Adjunct Proceedings of the 9th ACM Symposium on Computational Fabrication, 1–3. DOI: 10.1145/3665662.3673267
  • Alexandra A. M. Kuijpers, Bruna Goveia da Rocha, Maarten R. van Bommel, Troy Nachtigall. "Fold, Stand and Drape: Unweaving Physical vs Digital Textile Design Considerations." Proceedings of the Eighteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction, 1–15. DOI: 10.1145/3623509.3633351
  • Alexandra Kuijpers, Troy Nachtigall, Maarten van Bommel. "Textile and Fashion Design Considerations in a Digital Era." AHM Conference 2024: 'Heritage, Memory and Material Culture', 3, 69–74.
  • Dennis Wittchen, Nihar Sabnis, Troy Robert Nachtigall, F. 'Floyd' Mueller, P. Strohmeier, D. S. Elvitigala. "Foot Augmentation 101: Design Your Own Augmented Experiences." TEI '18. DOI: 10.1145/3623509.3634744

2023

  • Troy Nachtigall. "How Textiles Open Up Data as a Material in and on the Body." XRDS: Crossroads, The ACM Magazine for Students, 29(2), 24–28. DOI: 10.1145/3571298
  • Angella Mackey, Maria Vallejo de la Guarda, Oscar Tomico, Ron Wakkary, Troy Nachtigall, et al. "Becoming Solar: Towards More-Than-Human Understandings of Solar Energy." Temes de Disseny, 39, 248–268. DOI: 10.46467/TdD39.2023.248-269
  • Marianne Beemer, Christian Dils, Troy Nachtigall. "Second Skins: Exploring the Challenges and Opportunities for Designing Adaptable Garments Using E-Textile." Engineering Proceedings, 30(1), 9.
  • Marina Toeters, Loe Feijs, Troy Nachtigall. "Creating an Environment to Fight the Fashion System: Fashion Tech Farm." DeSForM 2023, 126–136.
  • Troy R. Nachtigall, T. E. Vonk, F. J. Kresin, E. L. Bartha, D. Southwick. "Beyond Vision: Designing a 'Digital-Self' through Embodied Creative Interactions." In Fashion+: Inclusive Articulations and Practices in Design, Communication & Development.
  • Matteo Mossinkoff, D. Tappi, Troy Nachtigall. "Fluid Ownership and Shared Rewards." IFFTI Annual Proceedings.

2022

  • Daniel Roggen, Katia Vega, H.-L. Kao, Troy Nachtigall, et al. "The 25th Edition of the International Symposium on Wearable Computers." IEEE Pervasive Computing, 21(2), 105–111. DOI: 10.1109/MPRV.2022.3153030

2021

  • L. Bogers, I. Kloppenburg, I. Maldini, Troy Nachtigall, et al. "Making Sustainability Work."
  • Troy Nachtigall. "Data as a Material for Fashion." Hogeschool van Amsterdam.
  • Minna Pakanen, Kasper Heiselberg, Troy Robert Nachtigall, et al. "Crafting a Leather Self-Tracking Device for Pollen Allergies." TEI '21, 96:1–96:15. DOI: 10.1145/3430524.3446072
  • Marlies Ruyg, Martijn de Waal, Sander Ben Allouch, Troy Nachtigall, Anne Neumann. "Educating the Next Generation of Urban Interaction Designers." In Towards Media Architecture, 9–15.

2020

  • Troy Nachtigall, Svetlana Mironcika, Oscar Tomico, Loe Feijs. "Designing Ultra-Personalized Product Service Systems." CoDesign, 16(4), 274–292. DOI: 10.1080/15710882.2020.1842454

2019

  • Troy Nachtigall, Oscar Tomico, Ron Wakkary, et al. "Encoding Materials and Data for Iterative Personalization." CHI '19, 1–13. DOI: 10.1145/3290605.3300749
  • Troy Nachtigall, Oscar Tomico, Ron Wakkary. "ONEDAY Shoes: A Maker Toolkit to Understand the Role of Co-Manufacturing in Personalization." TEI '19, 1–11. DOI: 10.1145/3294109.3295637
  • Kristina Andersen, Bruna Goveia da Rocha, Oscar Tomico, M. Toeters, A. Mackey, Troy Nachtigall. "Digital Craftsmanship in the Wearable Senses Lab." ISWC '19. DOI: 10.1145/3341163.3346943
  • Davide Jose Nogueira Amorim, Troy Nachtigall, Miguel Bruns Alonso. "Exploring Mechanical Meta-Material Structures through Personalised Shoe Sole Design." SCF '19, 1–8. DOI: 10.1145/3328939.3329001
  • Troy Robert Nachtigall, Oscar Tomico, Ron Wakkary. "Unpacking Solemaker into a Model for UPPSS." Research Through Design Conference (RTD '19), 1–16.
  • Troy Nachtigall, Svetlana Mironcika, Loe Feijs, Oscar Tomico. "From Personal to Ultra-Personalized." Eksig '19.

2018

  • Troy Nachtigall, Daniel Tetteroo, Panos Markopoulos. "A Five-Year Review of Methods, Purposes and Domains of the International Symposium on Wearable Computing." ISWC '18, 48–55. DOI: 10.1145/3267242.3267250
  • Troy Nachtigall, Kristina Andersen. "Making Secret Pockets." CHI EA '18, 1–6. DOI: 10.1145/3170427.3188660
  • Troy Nachtigall, Oscar Tomico, Ron Wakkary, Stephan Wensveen, Pauline van Dongen, Leonie Tentoff van Norten. "Towards Ultra Personalized 4D Printed Shoes." CHI EA '18, 1–9. DOI: 10.1145/3170427.3188661
  • Troy Nachtigall. "The Box of Glorious Failures." Workshop on Disruptive Improvisation, CHI '18.

2017

  • Troy Nachtigall. "EVA Moccasin: Creating a Research Archetype to Explore Shoe Use." ISWC '17, 197–202. DOI: 10.1145/3123021.3123077

2016

  • Troy Nachtigall. "Ultra Personalization and Textile Thinking in Interaction Design." Proceedings of the 2016 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing: Adjunct, 958–961. DOI: 10.1145/2968219.2979142
  • Loe Feijs, Troy Robert Nachtigall, Oscar Tomico. "Sole Maker: Towards Ultra-Personalised Shoe Design Using Voronoi Diagrams and 3D Printing." International Geometry Summit – IGS'16, Fabrication and Sculpting Event.

2014

  • Anja Hertenberger, Barbro Scholz, Becky Stewart, Ebru Kurbak, Hannah Perner-Wilson, Irene Posch, Isabel Cabral, Jie Qi, Katharina Childs, Kristi Kuusk, Troy Nachtigall. "2013 E-Textile Swatchbook Exchange: The Importance of Sharing Physical Work." ACM ISWC Adjunct, 77–81.
  • Shane Taylor et al. (incl. Troy R. Nachtigall). "Exemplary: 150 Years of the MAK from Arts and Crafts to Design, Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art Vienna."

References

  1. ↑ "Troy Nachtigall – Lector Fashion Research & Technology". Hogeschool van Amsterdam. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 "Bio". troykyo.net. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Troy Robert Nachtigall". TU/e Research Portal. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 "Troy Nachtigall". ArcInTexETN. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 "Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences appoints new lecturer of Fash-Tech". FashionUnited. 2021-03-07. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Troy Nachtigall – Fab Academy". 2015. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Troy Nachtigall". NewTexEco. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "About ArcInTexETN". Retrieved 2026-04-07.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 "Troy Nachtigall". HvA Research Database. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 "The hot seat: "I want to change how fashion is made"". Cursor, TU/e. April 2019. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 "Nachtigall's 3D-printed heels "more comfortable than shoes"". Dezeen. 2015-10-20. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
  12. ↑ "TU/e'rs ontwerpen outfit Bussemaker". TU/e. 2015-09-15. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 13.6 Reid, Carlton (2024-11-11). "Big Sneaker Brands Promised a 3D-Printed Revolution. These Are the Disrupters Making It Happen". Wired. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
  14. ↑ "Troy Nachtigall benoemd tot lector Fashion Research & Technology". Emerce. 2020-02-20. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 "Troy Nachtigall – Professor Fashion Research & Technology". Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 "The Farmers". Fashion Tech Farm. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 "Solemaker". Dialectic Design. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
  18. ↑ "Oneday Shoes: A Maker Toolkit". TU/e Research Portal. 2019-03-16. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 "Growing the Future: Living Footwear from Kombucha". MaterialDistrict. 2025-10-29. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 "Moving forward on living shoe soles". Eindhoven University of Technology. 2025-10-21. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
  21. ↑ "Troy Nachtigall". SPUI25. 2022-03-31. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
  22. ↑ "Wearable Data Studio". NewTexEco. 2025-06-09. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
  23. ↑ "NewTexEco: transition to a sustainable value chain in the textile industry". Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. 2022-12-31. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
  24. ↑ "Loopholes: toolkit for system change in the fashion and textile sector". NewTexEco. 2025-06-29. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
  25. ↑ "AEQUALIS4TCLF Advances Strategy, Education, and Social Innovation in Europe's TCLF Industries". CEC Footwear Industry. 2025-07-09. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
  26. ↑ "Praktische skills voor een toekomstbestendige kledingindustrie". HvA. 2024-12-07. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
  27. ↑ "ISWC 2017 Awards". ISWC. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
  28. ↑ "ISWC Design Exhibition". 2014. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
  29. ↑ "Troy Nachtigall – Speaker". Munich Creative Business Week. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 "Case Troy Nachtigall". CLICKNL. Retrieved 2026-04-07.
  31. ↑ "Troy Nachtigall". Google Scholar. Retrieved 2026-04-07.



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