Shoes with flexible, built-in HD displays that allow people to customise their footwear with animated content are set to go into production. New York-based company ShiftWear has raised around $220K of its $250K goal on crowdfunding site Indiegogo to put the shoes into mass production. ShiftWear says the shoes, which are waterproof and machine-washable, can be updated with fresh colours, designs and moving content as easily as changing the wallpaper on a phone or computer.
The company is proposing to offer three different styles of shoe, each made with flexible, curved HD displays that will be visible in daylight. The initial designs feature displays that are not front-lit, so the images will not be greatly visible in low-light.
These displays are similar to the E Ink displays found in e-readers such as Amazon Kindle. Static images shown on the shows consume very little power and while moving images will consume more, Walk-N-Charge technology will charge the batteries with each step the wearer takes. The shoes can be charged wirelessly when not in use, and feature a layer of Kevlar fibre in the soles for added durability.