20 Fascinating High-Tech Shoes Every Geek Should Have
Amit Chowdhry | Saturday December 6, 2008 | 6,908 views
Brand: Z-CoiL
Available for Purchase? Yes Cost: $99-$149
Features: Z-CoiL shoes have a spring that absorbs the shock and distributes across the shoe more than any other shoe. This means less pain for the human body. This would be especially useful if you’re into Parkour.
Source: ZCoiL.com
Brand: Vibram
Available for Purchase? Yes Cost: $70-$90
Features: Vibram is an Italian company that creates rubber footwear for better grip and comfort. The company was started by Vitale Bramani. He started the company after 6 of his mountaineering friends died in the Italian Alps partly due to the footwear.
The shoe displayed above is called Vibram Five Fingers. They were designed to be in the same shape of your foot to give you a more natural walking motion. This reduces the impact on your back and knees when climbing.
Source: Vibram Five Fingers
Brand: Nike (put together with an NES console by Sneaker Pimps)
Available for Purchase? No (Concept) Cost: N/A
Features: The Sneaker Pimps gutted the components out of an NES and stuck it into a shoe… literally. The Sneaker Pimps took this device on a tour with them on a nationwide tour in October 2007.
Source: The above photo was taken by Flickr user Mobius1ski.
Brand: Pioneer
Available for Purchase? No (Concept) Cost: N/A
Features: These shoes were designed by Feijun Chen and Bin Zhao. The shoes come equipped with headlights to make sure you don’t trip over anything while jogging in the dark. The shoes light up the ground 5 feet ahead. There is also a bright green LED light on the back so cars can see you when in the dark. The best part is that the lights are powered by kinetic energy.
Source: YankoDesign.com
Brand: Natalie Cosette Thorne
Available for Purchase? No (Concept) Cost: N/A
Features: These shoes have adjustable heel sizes. The adjustable heel can go from 3.5 inches to 1.5 inches and vice versa using a peg system and magnets. The shoe also has snap-on parts with different colors.
Source: CNET
Brand: Electrolux
Available for Purchase? No (Concept) Cost: N/A
Features: These shoes were made for those that are too lazy to pull out the vacuum cleaner. How the shoes actually do the vacuuming job has not be revealed. The company did not specify whether the shoes suction or store dirt.
Source: Gizmodo
Brand: Verb For Shoe
Available for Purchase? Yes Cost: $699
Features: Verb For Shoe has an embedded computer that automatically adjusts the level of support on your shoes depending on the activities you do. You can share your contact information with other people wearing Verb For Shoes by automatically pressing a button. The shoe has a built-in wireless connection to connect to your PC. You can adjust the comfort of your shoes or sync your contacts from your shoe to your PC and vice-versa.
Source: VerbForShoe.com
Brand: Reno Gmbh
Available for Purchase? Yes Cost: N/A
Features: These shoes are the first I’ve heard of that will be using RFID technology. Earlier last year, Reno signed a deal with Checkpoint Systems to have RFID tags and store tagging systems for their shoes. They are being used to track the shipping of the shoes from Asia and for security purposes within their stores.
Source: Wired
Brand: Dada Code M
Available for Purchase? Yes Cost: Starting at $199
Features: These sneakers have built-in speakers and an MP3 player. The MP3 player can hold about 100 songs. The shoes are water-resistant and are very durable. The built-in music player has about 3 hours of battery life. The music player is compatible with a PC and a Mac (via iTunes).
The shoe comes with a headset where you can control the music player’s volume and song change. The shoe is available at retailers such as Journeys, The Finish Line, Underground Station, Footaction, Footlocker, etc.
Source: Dadafootwear.com
Brand: Adidas
Available for Purchase? Yes Cost: $250
Features: Adidas first created these shoes in 1984 as the cutting edge shoes for runners. Fourteen years later they decided to reintroduce them to the market with a new design. The shoes are made of leather, nylon, and suede.
Inside the shoe there is a microprocessor that has a built-in pedometer, stopwatch, and LCD display. This shoe is perfect for short and long distance runners.
Source: Uncrate
Brand: N/A
Available for Purchase? No (Concept) Cost: N/A
Features: The Keyboard Shoes won first prize in the sports category at the 6th Hong Kong Footwear Design Contest at the 14th China International Clothing & Accessories
Source: China Daily
Brand: The Aphrodite Project
Available for Purchase? Yes Cost: N/A
Features: The Aphrodite Project is an artistic shoe that comes complete with GPS, an alarm system to scare off attackers, a button with a silent alarm that gives away the location of the shoes to the emergency services, and an LCD screen. The shoe was designed with the safety of prostitutes in mind.
Currently the shoe is not available for the public but are being sold at exhibitions.
Source: TheAphroditeProject.tv
Brand: ASRD
Available for Purchase? No (Concept) Cost: N/A
Features: A Step in the Right Direction created a sneaker that detects Wi-Fi connections. The end of the sneaker above has a Wi-Fi Internet dectection unit. When a connection is detected, the LEDs would light up. Each light would turn on depending on the strength of the connection.
The ASRD shoes was built based on the Nike Dunk. Only one pair was created as a project between designer Stefan Dukaczewski/MSTRPLN and UBIQ Boutique.
Source: MSTRPLN.com
Brand: Nike
Available for Purchase? Yes Cost: Roughly $69.99+ plus another $29.99 for the Apple iPod sports kit
Features: Nike and Apple partnered to help train runners. The Nike+ shoes have space to place a sensor. The sensor communicates with your iPod receiver to inform your iPod how many miles you’ve ran in the amount of time spent. The data can be synced to Nike+’s website where you can track running data and share motivation with others that have the same product.
Source: NikePlus
Brand: Non-Stop Shoes (NSS)
Available for Purchase? No (Concept) Cost: N/A
Features: Designer Emili Padrós looked at all of the energy potential that is available by performing tasks such as walking, going up and down the stairs, running, etc. Energy stored in these shoes can be used to power devices. Check out the light bulb being powered above.
These shoes were on exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art this past May.
Source: WallyG
Brand: Reebok (Volton theme designed by PickYourShoes)
Available for Purchase? Yes Cost: $79.99-$124.99
Features: These Voltron shoes don’t have any high-tech features specifically, but they look like they should. The shoes come in a variety of colors that represent the robots from the Voltron cartoon. This is the perfect shoe for robot fans.
Source: Uncrate
Brand: Designed by Simona Brusa Pasque
Available for Purchase? No (designer looking for funding) Cost: N/A
Features: Looks like an ordinary shoe, right? Wrong. This shoe has a built-in stun-gun controlled by a necklace. The stun gun is powered with 100,000 volts. It can only be used once for emergencies by breaking the tip of the shoes.
Source: Gizmag
Brand: Takara
Available for Purchase? Yes Cost: $29.99-$99.99
Features: NOT A REAL SHOE! When the Transformers movie came out last year, Takara prepared a toy that would be able to take the form of a Nike shoe. The shoe that the toy transform into is pictured on the bottom right. It is about 1/2 the size of a normal sized Nike shoe.
Source: Geekologie
Brand: Good Vibrations
Available for Purchase? Yes Cost: $30
Features: What if you go for a run all day and then need a foot rub? The Good Vibrations shoe does just that. By hitting the switch, you can turn your running shoe into a foot masseur. The shoe comes in a style that makes it unisex. It also comes in 4 different sizes (S/M/L/XL).
Source: Good Vibrations
Brand: iShoes
Available for Purchase? Yes Cost: $269.99
Features: Ilya Kaganovich, an inventor in Minnesota came up with a shoe that can reach speeds of about 13.5 miles per hour. The shoes run on a A123 Lithium ion battery. The pair of shoes weigh about 11.8 lbs. total.
Source: TheiShoes.com
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