Designed to work with the Össur Flex-Run blade, the Sole was a collaborative effort between Nike and triathlete Sarah Reinertsen. Like a normal running shoe, the Sole has an outsole and a midsole, and grips the carbon fiber blade with a material called Aeroply. Nike’s engineers even devised a clever system to secure the Sole to the blade, using an anchor and a rubber strip.

While it’s easy to dismiss this as either a cynical cash-in or an attempt to grab some good publicity, the Sole shows that a level of social acceptance and technological advancement where formerly insurmountable challenges now have consumer-grade solutions. I think we’re getting closer to the future, folks.

See a video of the shoe in action at Geekosystem. Link

At least in simulation, because they’re covered with artificial turf. But if you like to walk barefoot through grass, Kusa’s flip flops are a step in the right direction.

Link -via Gizmodo

I’ve never worn crocs, but I’ve heard that they’re comfortable. Now I’m not sure why. This pair was made by an Amsterdam-based artist who goes by the name “Sit.”

Link -via My Modern Met | Photo: Jonathan LeVine Gallery

George Balanchine, the charismatic director who ran the New York City Ballet and its School of American Ballet, rethought pointe shoes. He worked with Salvatore Capezio to develop and patent pointe shoes to produced the exact lines of the foot and leg he thought beautiful, and to be quieter and less clunky than earlier pointe shoes. He required all dancers (not just the principals) to go on pointe — and not for a few short moments, but for hours at a time.

Laemmli argues that the new shoes forced dancers’ bodies to move in new ways. Dancers on this pointe regimen developed characteristically long, lean leg muscles. Balanchine also encouraged dancers to let the shoes remake their bodies, including developing bunions that gave the foot just the right line. And as their bodies were remade, dancers became “like IBM machines,” modern and indistinguishable.

Link -via Boing Boing

(Image credit: Flickr user kirikiri)

I’m not big on high heels, even Super Mario heels, but these Breaking Bad Converse are just my speed, although The Walking Dead and Dexter ones are also incredible.

Link Via Geekosystem

Geek girls who have a hard time accessorizing  in a way that actually expresses their specific interests are sure to enjoy these sexy and cute Super Mario high heels from Etsy seller and Flickr user MagicBeanBuyer.

Link Via Geeks Are Sexy

Projects like this make me wish I was a better artist, but alas, I think the best hand-painted design I’d be able to come up with would be a smiley face. Oh well, at least us non-artist types can still appreciate looking at these awesome hand-painted Street Fighter shoes.

Link

The 2,000-year-old leather footwear was discovered along with Roman jewelry, coins, pottery, and animal bones at the site, which is located at the northern frontier of the Roman Empire.

The cache of Roman shoes and sandals—one of the largest ever found in Scotland—was uncovered recently in a ditch at the gateway to a second century A.D. fort built along the Antonine Wall. The wall is a massive defensive barrier that the Romans built across central Scotland during their brief occupation of the region.

In what will most likely prove to be a garbage dump, archaeologists are finding clues to life in one of the “most important Scottish excavations in the last decade.” Link

(Image credit: Martin Cook)

So Mr. Cole decided to do just that — shoot a movie. He filed for a permit to shoot “The Birth of a Shoe Company,” and outfitted his trailer with a director, cameramen (although not all of them had film), and “actresses” who played the “roles” of models, displaying the shoes.

And yes, the shoes were indeed for sale. Kenneth Cole sold all 40,000 pairs of shoes over two and a half days, establishing itself as a force in the fashion of footwear, and giving the company a much needed cash infusion as it expanded toward greater heights.

Link | Photo by Flickr user Kables used under Creative Commons license

(YouTube Link)

If you thought you had to go back in time to see the shoes Marty McFly wore in Back To The Future II, you’ll be positively delighted by Nike’s release of the 2011 MAG, faithful reproductions of the shoes seen in the film which are being auctioned off to benefit the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. If you’re like me, though, and can’t come anywhere near affording the hefty $5000 price tag, you’ll just have to wait until 2015 when Nike releases the real deal version of these shoes, complete with power laces. Now someone needs to get to work on creating a working hoverboard and all of our BTTF fantasies will have come true!

-via Destructoid

Pattern Paper Stilletos by Jennifer Collier

Jennifer Collier of Unit Twelve uses found and recycled papers–patterns, maps, newspapers–to create everyday objects like shoes and cameras. Rather than choosing an item to sculpt then scrounging up the paper for it, Collier works the other way around: “I tend to find items then investigate a way in which they can be reused and transformed.” The results are interesting and a bit whimsical. You can check out more of her work on Laughing Squid, or see it at the Origin Contemporary Craft Fair Sep 22-28. Link

All About The Shoes Wizard of Oz Stainless Steel Water Bottle - $11.95

On August 25, 1939 the US was introduced to a magical technicolor land known as Oz.  What have we learned from one of the best-known films of all time? It’s all about the shoes!

Celebrate the Wizard of Oz with the All About The Shoes Wizard of Oz Stainless Steel Water Bottle from the NeatoShop.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fantastic Wizard of Oz collectibles!

Link

Remember the Googly eye dress we featured on Neatorama a while ago? Well, the question to what shoes go with that has finally been answered. Behold the Déjà Vu high heel shoes by Christian Louboutin!

Dress up a plain pair of shoes for a special occasion by making your own Twinkle Toes, colorful ruffles that contain LEDs to show off your fancy footwork. Becky Stern takes you through the process step-by-step, plus a video tutorial. Link -via Laughing Squid

Are your shoes plain, but comfortable? Etsy seller pcbcreations has a solution to both of those problems. These sandals, like the other inventive works in his gallery, are made from printed circuit boards. Link -via DVICE

After you're done with these sneakers from Dutch footwear maker OAT Shoes, don't throw 'em away. Bury 'em in the ground, instead. Don't worry - you're supposed to do that:

The second-place winner at Amsterdam’s Green Fashion Awards last week, OAT’s “Virgin Collection” is the world’s first line of sneakers that, upon disposal, will biodegrade and sprout trees. The materials—some developed by OAT itself—are all easily broken down, and tree seeds packed in the lining will hopefully leave saplings where your sneakers once stood.

Link

(YouTube link)

Don’t get too excited, hippies. This video made the rounds today with explicit “this is real” remarks that initially had me a little bit giddy with the Rube Goldbergesque idea of first breeding super-pigeons, then training them, then convincing every customer to send photographs of themselves, cities and homes to Jojo, all to avoid shipping shoes via freight or traditional carrier. I wanted to believe it, I did. But a disclaimer at the end of the video implicitly denies the reality of super-pigeon shoe shipping:

The remarks made in this video do not reflect the reality of pigeon fancying. No birds have been maltreated during the shooting of this film.

None of this should distract from the JoJo Project‘s goal of providing clean water and reforestation efforts, though, it’s too bad, really. I almost bought a pair of men’s shoes.

Polkadot via This is Colossal via FlavorWire

PS from Miss C: This marks published post #35,000 at Neatorama! That’s quite an archive. I would throw some confetti at Adrienne if I knew where she lived.

If you ever wanted to fool animal trackers that you are actually a cat, dog, monkey, even a gecko, then you’d better strap on some of these bizarre new sandals from Japan that make your footprints look like the animal of your choice. Of course, they’re only really useful in mud or sand, so plan accordingly.

Link

These intricately-designed high heels might not be the most functional shoes in the world, but they are certainly eye-catching and fun. Would any of you fashion-forward neatonaut ladies wear these or do they look too hard to walk around in?

Oddee has a variety of other items inspired by Alice in Wonderland at the link.

Link

These are just what you need for ducking down pipes, jumping on Goombas and saving pixelated Princesses. Converse has announced that their series of Super Mario shoes will be available to gamers and non-gamers alike this summer. A basic design featuring a repeating pattern of little Marios on a white or black background will be rolled out in July. The two designs set for an August release depict entire scenes of the game – the first level and the last level (shown).

Link via [Geeks Are Sexy]

What do you do when your pet goose gets sore feet after walking around the city streets all day? Buy him some protective shoes of course! See more of the adorable pictures on Cute Overload.

Artist Phil Noto made this shoe for a custom sneaker art show at the Bold Hype Gallery in New York City. I’d hazard a guess that the number 27 refers to a specific vessel, but it’s hard to know precisely which one.

Link via Everyday, No Days Off | Artist’s Website | Photo by the artist

If you want to say ‘I’m a practical person’ while still wearing high heeled shoes, these stilettos by Christian Louboutin should do the trick. It’s just a pity that they’re only in metric.

Link via Craft | Photo: Christian Loutoubin

Billed as “the ultimate stiletto,” this pair of shoes is made of gold or platinum (your choice) and encrusted with 2,200 handset diamonds, over 30 karats total. It also features “the exquisite Stamen Fluted Heal” (sic). It also comes with extra soles, so it will never wear out. The price? £100,000. That’s $163,500 US. Got that in a size 6E? Link -via J-Walk Blog

Oh, nothing special, just a duck walking through Beijing showing off its shoes. Link -via Buzzfeed

(Image credit: China Foto Press/Barcroft Media)

This whimsical design by footwear designer Kobi Levi is a "shoe-in" for fun! Check out his blog for many more wonderfully unusual shoe designs: Link (my favorite is the Olive Oyl) – via Book of Joe

The knee-length and ankle-length shoes were commissioned to celebrate 100 years of the famous National Hunt festival, which begins on Tuesday.

Three pairs will be sold with proceeds going to the Prostate Cancer Charity.

Link via Born Rich | Photo: BBC

Lauren Milroy, a mechanical engineer with a background in the aerospace industry, recently completed a master’s program in design. She made these shoes out of colored pencils.

Link via Dude Craft | Artist’s Website

The Wicked Witch of the East Door Stop -  $27.95

Do you know someone who is hard to shop for? The Wicked Witch of the East Door Stop from the NeatoShop, because even a real witch can appreciate a great pair of shoes.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more Wizard of the Oz fun.

Therese of Earth and Living figured out how to construct shoes like those worn by Medieval Scandinavians. It’s not as simple as you might think, but it’s a quite feasible craft project for the non-professional leatherworker. She provides step-by-step instructions with pictures from start to finish. Once you’re done, grab a sword and go raiding!

Link via The Presurfer

So you’re going scuba diving for pirate treasure, and shortly thereafter, to a ritzy gallery opening. To save time between the two events, you can wear these high heeled flippers by Belgian artist Paul Schietekat.

Link via reddit

A few days ago, Allie Brosch described in detail the confusion her dogs went through when wearing their first shoes. So you can witness that sort of thing yourself, here is Booba, a presumably normal Shi Tzu wearing his new yellow shoes. He doesn’t appear to be accustomed to wearing shoes. -via Buzzfeed

There’s a store in Japan that is now selling shoes with sole imprints inspired by Ukiyo-e woodblock printing. Three other patterns are available. The creators built their design around Merrell-style American shoes.

Link via OhGizmo!

The lady shown here is wearing “chopines”, or platform shoes. Chopines were worn in the Middle Ages to keep feet and dress hems out of the dust and mud. They also came to represent class, as a taller woman was obviously of a “higher” class. However, this picture was taken in 1873 in Damascus. Read more on the history of shoe lifts at TYWKIWDBI. Link

When What The World Needs Now was published in 1984 I felt I had tapped into a streak of American cultural insanity – or, to be more honest, my own insanity – so successfully that no future designs in any field could out-crazy mine. Wrong! Instead, I see now that my work was just a timid first step in a worldwide mix ‘n match innovation binge that would make my odd designs look almost staid and boring. In 1984, these women’s shoes, for example, were my idea of nutty-crazy.

Yet, if you follow fashion design these days, some of the designs for dresses, coats, hats and shoes for women seem over-the-top insane. Today, no strange idea is allowed to remain unexplored.

I have tried my best to be ahead of the curve. Here are some truly meaningless and awkward shoe-hat combo designs. This clothing line is part of my As Above So Below collection. These, I hope, are crazier than current clothing designers would dare offer to the buying public.

In women’s wear, funky and colorful tennis shoes have become a fashion item and are sometimes worn with a formal dress or business suit.

When I look back at my files from 1982-83 I find odd hat designs that touched on the shoe-hat theme. They have never been published. They are shown on Neatorama for the first time.

Can the current crop of fashion designers top these? I doubt they can. These designs are at once too heavy, sweaty and off-balance to really catch on. Or are they? Assuming they merely look like the shoe or boot they are imitating, but are actually ultra-light, might there be a clientele for these? Should I quit cartooning and start designing ShoeHat products?

These soft sheepskin slipper-style ShoeHats look rather warm and comfortable if worn in winter. I like them. One could store lightweight things inside the upper story.

The GloveHat on the right would not fit with my ShoeHat product line, of course. Plus, unlike the ShoeHats, this design is borderline practical, assuming one could discover an advantage to having two matching and one non-matching GloveHats. Right-handers would choose a right-hand GloveHat as the hat, considering it as a spare.

In an upcoming post in the Museum of Possibilities series, I will continue to explore the hat theme. I plan to shift away from impractical designs like the above to practical and useful designs like the snowshoes hat, smoking helmet, and folding campsite toilet hat.

Visit Steven M. Johnson at his website.

These cool Batman and Robin shoes are just prototypes at the moment but I hope Brass Monki gets them into production. All you’d need to complete that 60s superhero look are tights and a cape.

Link – Via Dangerous Minds

Elevator shoes that work like a real elevator -going up and down as needed, controlled by an iPhone app. -via Nag on the Lake

The matriach of avant-garde fashion and the Brazilian footwear company have turned the shrink ray on two of Westwood’s popular Anglomania designs: the Lady Dragon Bow and Lady Dragon Heart. The result? Four Mini-Me versions for milk-imbibing hoofers.

I’d consider binding my feet to fit these tiny Vivienne Westwood  designed vegan shoes but they are a little pricey and I’d only look like mutton dressed as lamb.

Link - Via Notcot

Three years ago, Alex posted about the discovery of a 3,000-year old shoe. It was then thought to be the oldest ever found. Now archaeologists have found one about 5,500-years old in a cave in Armenia:

Stuffed with grass, perhaps as an insulator or an early shoe tree, the 5,500-year-old moccasin-like shoe was found exceptionally well preserved—thanks to a surfeit of sheep dung—during a recent dig in an Armenian cave.

About as big as a current women’s size seven (U.S.), the shoe was likely tailor-made for the right foot of its owner, who could have been a man or a woman—not enough is known about Armenian feet of the era to say for sure.

Made from a single piece of cowhide—a technique that draws premium prices for modern shoes under the designation “whole cut”—the shoe is laced along seams at the front and back, with a leather cord.

There’s a comment on its design from fashion mogul Manolo Blahnik at the link.

Link | Photo: Gregory Areshian

Nike78 is an project by designer Paul Jenkins and the Nike apparel company which invited artists to modify shoes in creative ways. The Wieden+Kennedy advertising agency in Tokyo turned one of their shoes into an aquarium.

Link via Super Punch | Project Page | Photo: W+K Tokyo Lab

Artist Steven Rodrig sculpts with printed circuit boards. He has made shoes, insects, flowers, podiums, and book covers from the material.

Link via Make | Photo: Xact Studios

Arturo Vidich, Eric Mika, and Tai Yin Ho equipped pressure sensors to the soles of a set of shoes. They can be played like a musical instrument by dancing in different ways. The project is called “Beat Feat”. You can view schematics and construction photos at the link.

Link via Make

Geeks and geekettes rejoice, you can finally buy a sweet pair of styling shoes that pay homage to your favorite sci-fi movie.  The one pictured above is the Luke Skywalker version. I think the coolest is the slave Princess Leia one in purple and gold, but to be fair, it probably won’t match most of your clothes.

Has anyone actually seen these on sale yet? I want a pair.

Link

We’ve featured Grimpoteuthis AKA the Dumbo octopus (look at its ears) before on Neatorama, but I couldn’t resist this photo from The Deep, a book by French documentary film producer Claire Nouvian (featuring more than 200 photos of weird deep sea creatures taken by scientists from submersibles). It looks like the Dumbo octopus has a pair of stylish shoes!

Link – via TYWKIWDBI

Previously on Neatorama: The Deep Book: Fantastic Photos of Deep Sea Creatures

Photo: Dalia Birske

Martynas Birskys of the Vilnius-based design studio DaDaDa sells slippers made out of bread. For your comfort, you can select from various sizes and grains. It’s hard to argue with his sales pitch “eatable…dries itself… made from bread…first in fashion…needs no pressing…feels good in dry climate …won’t sag.”

Link via GearFuse

Allee Willis is a fantastic and accomplished songwriter by day (she wrote the Friends theme song I’ll Be There For You, for example) and a kitsch collector by night.

Thanks to the Interweb, we can now marvel at her extensive collection of kitsch. As a bacon afficionado, it’s my sworn duty to bring you these Bacon Shoes:

Nothin’ tastier in the morning then to slip on a nice pair of bacon shoes and go about your day. As someone who loves the meaty stuff, this is the perfect way to avoid all that grease and and keep your feet looking crisp and scrumptious all day. I have bacon bandages, bacon scarves, designer bacon everything, but the printing is so cheap on most of it it just looks like pink and red wavy stripes. But on these Keds it actually looks like the real thing.

Link | More at Kitsch O’The Day and her new website, The Allee Willis Museum of Kitsch

Related – from the Neatorama Shop: Bacon Store

When the brothers set up their separate companies in 1948 the town was also split, with residents loyal to one or other of the only major employers.

In a joint release, the two companies said they were making up to support the Peace One Day organisation, which has its annual non-violence day on Monday.

They say that the events will be the first joint activities held by the two companies since the brothers left their shared firm in 1948.

Adi and Rudolf Dassler went to their graves without settling their differences, and their descendants do not control either of the public companies. Link -via the Presurfer

Here’s a New York Times article by Amy Cortese about the controversial movement of running barefoot (or barely barefoot anyhow, as these runners still wear thin rubber running shoes like the ones shown to the left):

Recent research suggests that for all their high-tech features, modern running shoes may not actually do much to improve a runner’s performance or prevent injuries. Some runners are convinced that they are better off with shoes that are little more than thin gloves for the feet — or with no shoes at all.

Plenty of medical experts disagree with this notion. The result has been a raging debate in running circles, pitting a quirky band of barefoot runners and researchers against the running-shoe and sports-medicine establishments.

Naturally, Nike and other large shoe manufacturers aren’t amused:

The shoe industry giants defend their products, saying they help athletes perform better and protect feet from stress and strain — not to mention the modern world’s concrete and broken glass.

But for all the technological advances promoted by the industry — the roll bars, the computer chips and the memory foam — experts say the injury rate among runners is virtually unchanged since the 1970s, when the modern running shoe was introduced. Some ailments, like those involving the knee and Achilles’ tendon, have increased.

Link (Photo: Jodi Hilton for The New York Times)

Maybe this fellow doesn’t have a car on which to put his bumper stickers, or he just wants to communicate with people walking behind him.

If you had bumper stickers on the back of your shoes, what would they say?

Link via Gear Fuse

Just in time for Mothers’ Day! It’s the Zombie Stomper Heel, which the seller describes as “Perfect for stompin’ on zombies..and men’s hearts.”

Link via Double Plus Undead