Don’t worry about crashing into poles, fellow pedestrians or vehicles due to staring at GPS instructions on your smartphone screen – just follow your shoes. British designer Dominic Wilcox created these ‘No Place Like Home’ shoes with LED lights in the toes that will guide you to your destination.
One of the shoes has a GPS chip embedded within the sole and an antenna in a red ankle tag. You just plug a USB cable into the sole before you leave, plotting the location of your destination on a map using custom software.
The location data is uploaded into the shoe, and the LED lights on the left shoe point the wearer in the right direction. “The progress bar starts with one red light at the beginning of the journey and ends on the green light when you arrive,” says Wilcox. “The correct direction to walk is shown by the illumination of one of the LED’s on the circle. I chose mini LED lights as they needed to be visible outdoor in sunlight. There were other alternatives like digital displays but given the distance from the eyes these LED’s seemed the best option.”
“I drew an illustration that I etched onto the sole and chose a red calf leather for the inside as a small reference to Dorothy’s red shoes in the Wizard of Oz.”
The shoes are currently on display at the London Design Festival. See more photos and a video of the shoes in action at Dezeen.
