Stenting has become a mature procedure to maintain lumen across previously occluded vessels. As the technique has progressed through design innovation and processing techniques so the choice of structural materials has also progressed. This presentation will discuss the materials currently available for stent platforms and discuss how and why they may be selected to optimize various stent material requirements.The presentation will review the history of stent materials, discuss a formal material selection process, discuss examples of stents employing various materials and consider the future of stent technology. In addition, it will show how commercially available databases can be employed for the selection process.