Bike saddles are a good test of whether additive manufacturing has moved past the prototype bench. They are made in volume, they sell on comfort and weight, and every rider sits on them a little differently. A new VoxelMatters profile of Selle Italia, published November 9, follows the Italian saddle maker from its first exploration of 3D printing in 2021 to a lineup of seven 3D printed products and a custom range, Unica, where the printed padding is built from each rider's own pressure data. The story shows a pattern that keeps recurring in production AM. The printed part starts as a better version of a conventional component and ends up as the reason a new product category exists at all.
From Experiment to Catalog
VoxelMatters reports that Selle Italia began exploring 3D printing in 2021 and focused on Carbon's Digital Light Synthesis (DLS) process. Its first printed saddle, the SLR Boost 3D, launched in 2022. The company now sells seven 3D printed products in standard sizes, so the technology is a regular part of its catalog and no longer limited to a halo model or a limited edition.
That timeline matters. Going from first exploration to a shipping product in about a year, then to a multi-model family, suggests the printed padding is repeatable enough for real production. Saddle padding takes repeated loading, sweat, sun and weather, and a manufacturer is unlikely to put seven products on a process unless parts come off the printer consistently.
Enrico Andreola, Selle Italia's product manager, speaks for the company in the VoxelMatters piece. The technical point of the profile is simple: the padding's behavior is set by the lattice design rather than by the choice of foam.
Why Lattices Instead of Foam
Conventional saddle padding is a block of material with one set of properties. Designers can stack densities or cut channels, but they are always working with a slab. A printed lattice changes that. According to VoxelMatters, Carbon's lattice solution lets manufacturers create flexible structures that can be tuned through three variables: unit cell geometry, strut size and density.
Each variable does a separate job. Unit cell geometry, meaning the shape of the repeating cell, influences how the structure deforms under load. Strut size influences how stiff each cell is. Density, meaning how much material fills a given volume, influences how much carries the load in a given region. Because those parameters can change from point to point in the same part, one printed pad can be firm under the sit bones and softer where soft tissue needs relief. Andreola describes it as the only way to get a seamless variation in softness, which lets the saddle be optimized around specific anatomical contact points.
Anyone who has printed TPU with variable infill, or tuned gyroid density to get a squishier phone case, already knows the basic idea. The difference here is validation. A commercial maker has to show that the same geometry gives the same feel on every unit, and Prototek, Selle Italia's production partner, says each saddle goes through the same validated workflow of printing, post-processing and quality control.
Unica: The Lattice Becomes the Fit
The standard-size products show the lattice can replace foam. Unica shows what else it can do. Selle Italia's official page describes the range as "personalized performance," built on idmatch pressure mapping. The company says Unica is not based on predefined cushioning zones, and that every saddle is individually engineered from pressure data collected through idmatch.
That phrase marks the key change. Standard 3D printed saddles use differentiated cushioning zones that are set in advance. With Unica, the lattice layout is generated from a pressure map of the person who will ride it. The printed structure is the fit.
The workflow Selle Italia publishes is plain and retail-shaped:
- Pressure analysis at an authorized centre, where the rider's pressure distribution is captured with idmatch.
- Ordering through that same centre.
- Tracking manufacturing in the my.idmatch web app while the saddle is produced.
- Fitting back at the centre once the saddle arrives.
Unica is offered on two shells, the SLR 3D and the Novus Boost Evo 3D, each with a choice of Carbon or Elite rails. The saddle keeps the proven shape of the selected model, and what changes is the internal cushioning structure. Keeping the shell and rail options fixed while the lattice changes per rider is a sensible split. Prototek's Andrea Barchi puts the logic this way: keep customization within boundaries that have already been tested for durability. Mass customization in practice tends to look like this: one variable component on a validated platform, not a fully bespoke product.
What It Means for Makers
Few readers will run a Carbon DLS line, but Selle Italia's approach carries over directly to the hobby bench.
Treat lattice parameters as design inputs, not slicer defaults. The three levers named in the profile (cell geometry, strut size, density) correspond to things makers can already control in nTopology-style tools, Blender geometry nodes, or slicer modifiers that change infill pattern and percentage by region. If you print grips, insoles, seat pads or padding for wearables, the useful question is where each kind of stiffness belongs, not which infill percentage feels right.
Data beats intuition for comfort parts. Unica's main claim is that padding should follow measured pressure, not predefined zones. A maker version is cheap: pressure-indicating film, a simple sensor mat, or even witness marks from a test print can show where load concentrates before you commit to a final geometry.
Keep the structure standard and customize the interface. Selle Italia did not reinvent the shell or the rails for each Unica rider. It customized the padding that touches the body. That is a good rule for any personal-fit project. Print the part that has to match a human, and buy or reuse the part that has to carry a load safely.
Watch the service model. The Unica process runs through authorized centres and a tracking app, with measurement and final fitting done in person. For small shops selling custom printed goods, that is a template worth noting. The scan and the fitting are part of what the customer pays for, not just the printed object.
Bottom Line
Selle Italia's path, from 2021 exploration to the 2022 SLR Boost 3D to a seven-product range and a rider-specific custom line, is one of the clearer cases of a consumer brand using lattice printing for what it is good at. In the standard products the printed padding is simply a better material. In Unica, the lattice turns a pressure map into a part. Makers already working with TPU and variable infill can borrow that idea now.
