Tweet shoe prototype (via Adidas)
This summer we all witnessed the first digital Olympic games. Social networks were buzzing with so much excitement and news of the games that twitter announced it was the most spoken about event in twitter history. With that said, Adidas and British shoe designer Money Nash, teamed up to recreate a pair of Adidas’ “Barricade” tennis shoe in spirit of the first digital Olympics.
As far as we know, Money Nash has created the first social-media shoes capable of sending and receiving tweets. Nash put a liquid crystal display that shows incoming tweets to @adidasbarricade and a USB port where he connects a matching Adidas Barricade smartphone to send them. The classic Adidas stripes have also been hacked and glow a cool white. It is unclear what the knob on top of the shoe is for but most likely it’s a light control. The processor used to manage everything is an Arduino board.
As is, the shoe may not be suitable to wear, let alone for an athlete to compete in them, but Adidas is playing with the idea of refining it and somehow implementing them in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Do not expect to buy them anytime soon, but you may be able to personally encourage or congratulate your favorite athlete at the next games. They wouldn't have to keep their ear to the ground, just an eye on their shoe.
(The hard tech behind the shoe was never released to the public. Too bad.)
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