His name is Dominic Wilcox, a British shoe designer extraordinaire, and he has created the first ever prototype GPS shoe that will guide you home from anywhere in the world. And oddly enough, his inspiration came from the Wizard of Oz:
I was commissioned by the Global Footprint project in Northamptonshire, a place famous for shoe making, to create some shoes. I decided to make a pair of shoes that can navigate you to anywhere you wish to travel to. I thought about the Wizard of Oz and how Dorothy could click her shoes together to go home. After uploading your required destination to the shoes via a piece of custom made mapping software and a USB cable, the GPS, which is embedded in the heel, is activated by a heel click. It then communicates to the wearer via a ring of LED lights to point in the required direction. The shoe with the GPS wirelessly communicates with the right shoe that has a progress bar of lights to show how close you are to the destination.
Meanwhile in Northamptonshire…
Dominic makes necessary modifications to a £1,100 ($1,780 USD) pair of oxfords by Stamp Shoes
The toecap has a perforated guide that lights up. The lights progress from red to green, signifying the start and the end of your journey. The direction in which to walk is displayed on a circular perforated pattern, much like a compass.
These oxfords are weird, creative and potentially fatal. You have to give credit to Dominic for bringing a wonderful idea to life…even if it might cause your foot cancer.
Dominic Wilcox
Like the shoes but hate the GPS aspect? Visit the Stamp Shoes website for more info about the brand.
