Solemates

Given the number of women I know who are hob­bled by their footwear after a night at the danc­ing, or who lose their shoes on the way home, I feel com­fort­able pre­dict­ing that the Sole­mates idea is a winner:

A group of Tyne­side stu­dents believe they have found the per­fect solu­tion for women walk­ing in painful high heels at the end of a night out.

The New­cas­tle Uni­ver­sity busi­ness stu­dents have designed dis­pos­able shoes for women, called Soul­mates (sic).

The dis­pos­able shoes are made from two pieces of syn­thetic foam.

The idea is that women buy the £2 shoes from a bar at the end of the night and carry their uncom­fort­able heels home with them, pre­vent­ing painful feet.

The pro­to­types clearly need pret­ty­ing up some before they’re ready for sale, but, since the idea came from mar­ket­ing stu­dents, I imag­ine the end prod­uct will be tai­lored toward brand­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for night­clubs, brew­eries and shoe com­pa­nies, with the women at the local Ritzy stag­ger­ing home in Sole­mates sport­ing Bac­ardi Breezer colour­ways, hip-​hop girls don­ning Hyp­no­tiq-hued foam slip-​ons (over their box-​fresh train­ers, pre­sum­ably), and fash­ion witches rush­ing the bar for lim­ited edi­tion Voyage Sole­mates, hand-​sequinned by Rocky Mazz­illi himself.

Fast-​forward a few years, and night­club­bers will pass through a full-​body scan­ner on the way in, and pick up a pair of custom-​printed Sole­mates to match their outfit on the way out.

Prob­a­bly.

Night­clubs wish­ing to pio­neer the trend can buy the ugly pro­to­type from Masac House, New­cas­tle University’s enter­prise arm.

(Via Near Near Future)

Posted at 10am on 26/11/04 by Jack Mottram to the art and culture category.
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