Two parts of Harvard have covered IAMBIC®, and the backing has continued year after year. The company was named to the Top 10 Innovation Moments of 2023, joined the Launch Lab X GEO cohort, was named a finalist in Harvard University's President's Innovation Challenge in 2024, returned to the Challenge in 2026, and is the subject of a Harvard-produced documentary. The Harvard Gazette covered the 2024 Challenge, describing a field of ventures built to solve real problems. Harvard Innovation Labs also covered the MODEL T's TIME Best Invention award separately, on its own site. That is an ongoing record with an institution that re-evaluates its ventures every cycle, which is a different instrument from a single award and a harder one to hold.
Key takeaways
- Harvard Innovation Labs has backed IAMBIC across multiple consecutive cycles, and the relationship is ongoing.
- IAMBIC was a President's Innovation Challenge finalist in 2024, selected from a competitive applicant field.
- Harvard Innovation Labs also covered the MODEL T's TIME Best Invention award independently.
- Harvard produced a documentary on IAMBIC's work, embedded below.
- An accelerator reviews engineering, patents and data. IAMBIC holds 12 patent-pending inventions.
“Solutions to some of the world's most pressing problems.”
The Harvard Gazette, March 2024
What has Harvard Innovation Labs actually done with IAMBIC?
Backed the company across consecutive cycles, and published about it 3 separate times.
A one-time award is a snapshot. A venture relationship is a repeated decision, because an accelerator re-evaluates every cohort and every Challenge cycle. Each entry below is a separate decision made at a separate time.
| Year | What happened | What it required |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Named to the Top 10 Innovation Moments | Editorial selection from the full venture network |
| 2023 to 2024 | Launch Lab X GEO cohort | Application and admission to a technology-led track |
| 2024 | President's Innovation Challenge finalist | Competitive field, review panel, published outcome |
| 2024 | Covered by The Harvard Gazette | Editorial judgment by the university's own newsroom |
| 2026 | Subject of a Harvard-produced documentary | Production resources committed to 1 venture |
Harvard Innovation Labs maintains a venture profile for IAMBIC, and published a separate piece when the MODEL T was named a TIME Best Invention. The 2026 Challenge entry is documented in its own i-lab article.
What does an accelerator review that a magazine does not?
The company, not the product.
An editorial award assesses a finished object. Judges hold the thing, weigh originality and effect, and decide. That is a real evaluation and IAMBIC holds one, covered in the Best Invention award.
An accelerator asks a different question: is there defensible technology underneath, and can this team move it into the world. It looks at the engineering, the patent position, the data, and the people. A brand story does not survive that review, and it certainly does not survive it cycle after cycle.
IAMBIC applied as a hard tech company. The platform holds 12 patent-pending inventions spanning AI, computer vision and the manufacturing method that uses them. More on the team and the history is on the IAMBIC about page.
What is the technology Harvard assessed?
A fit engine, a proprietary dataset, and a manufacturing method built to use both.
You scan each foot with advanced smartphone 3D scanning. NASA-grade computer vision reads 20 biometric variables to the millimeter. IAMBIC's models compare those against more than 50,000 fit profiles collected in house, then generate a last built for one person.
The dataset is the part an accelerator pays attention to. Anyone can license a scanning library. Collecting 50,000 proprietary fit profiles takes years and cannot be bought, and it is what makes the fit engine hard to replicate. The engineering sits on the IAMBIC fit technology page.
The Harvard Innovation Labs documentary
Harvard produced a film on IAMBIC's work. It runs through the fit problem, the technology and the people building it.
What the coverage got right
The Harvard Gazette covered the 2024 Challenge as a field, not as a winner's list. Readers could see the ventures IAMBIC was measured against, which is the honest way to report a competitive selection. A solo profile would have hidden the field, and a finalist placing means nothing without one.
Harvard Innovation Labs also covered the TIME award independently, on its own site, in its own words. That matters more than it looks: 2 organizations with no relationship to each other reached the same conclusion about the same product in the same year.
What has changed since
IAMBIC was named a President's Innovation Challenge finalist in 2024 and returned to the Challenge in 2026. A pair costs $600 today, is handcrafted in Portugal and arrives in 4 weeks, and IAMBIC shoes are HSA/FSA eligible. The fit dataset has grown past 50,000 scans since the first selection. Anything else is answered in the IAMBIC FAQs.
About the institution
Harvard Innovation Labs
Harvard Innovation Labs supports ventures founded by Harvard students, faculty and alumni through structured accelerator programs, including the Launch Lab X track for technology-led companies. It runs the President's Innovation Challenge, an annual competition with a defined applicant field and a review panel, and has operated since 2011.
The Harvard Gazette
The Harvard Gazette is Harvard University's official news publication, founded in 1906, covering research, teaching and the work of the university community.
Frequently asked questions
Why does Harvard Innovation Labs work with a shoe company?
Because the underlying work is hard technology. Accelerators assess what a venture has engineered, and IAMBIC applied as a computer vision and AI company with 12 patent-pending inventions. The shoe is how that technology reaches a person. A brand story alone does not clear that review.
What is the President's Innovation Challenge?
An annual competition run by Harvard Innovation Labs, open to ventures founded by Harvard students, faculty and alumni. Entrants apply, a review panel assesses them against a defined field, and finalists are named publicly. IAMBIC was named a finalist in 2024 and returned to the Challenge in 2026.
Is precision fit hardware, software, or both?
Both, and the combination is the invention. The software reads 20 biometric variables from a smartphone scan and generates a last. The manufacturing side then builds a physical shoe against that last in Portugal. Neither half works without the other, which is why the review covered both.
What makes IAMBIC's fit data hard to copy?
IAMBIC collected it. More than 50,000 proprietary fit profiles were gathered in house over several years, and a dataset built that way cannot be bought off the shelf. It is what the fit engine benchmarks every new scan against, and it is why the fit improves as the dataset grows.
Who founded IAMBIC?
Maeve Wang, Co-Founder and CEO, a Harvard graduate and former Bain strategist with a background in digital health and wearables, and Dr. Raza Hassan, Co-Founder and CTO, who holds a PhD in biomedical engineering and 15 years in biomechanics, 3D modeling and computer vision.
Does an accelerator selection mean the product works?
It means the technology was assessed by people with no commercial stake and held its position against a competitive field, and did so again in a later cycle. Whether the product works is a separate question, answered by wear, and covered in the press coverage and client reviews on this site.
Harvard coverage of IAMBIC
- Initiatives showcase solutions to world problems, The Harvard Gazette, March 2024
- IAMBIC MODEL T sneaker named a 2023 TIME Best Invention, Harvard Innovation Labs
- IAMBIC at the 2026 President's Innovation Challenge, Harvard Innovation Labs
- IAMBIC venture profile, Harvard Innovation Labs
Related IAMBIC coverage
- Forbes on how a pair is made
- The Wall Street Journal on whether custom-fit shoes work
- Athletech News on the $600 question
See what a last built from your own measurements feels like
HSA/FSA eligible. Unlimited refits included.
