E-paper Sneakers- becoming true in Fall 2016

New York-based ShiftWear has created a new pair of shoes that integrates technology directly into the shoe itself. Although ShiftWear sneakers look like normal sneakers, the sides are made of a flexible e-paper display. The designs on the display can be altered via a smartphone app to feature different graphics and illustrations — even ones you illustrate yourself — and ShiftWear hopes users will create a mobile marketplace of shapeshifting shoe styles.

Although this is not the first innovation in the field of tech wearables, it could be argued that they are posed to make a change: whereas all innovation in this arena seems to skip fashion, these sneakers are actually “nice to wear”.

So, once these sneakers are out there, and competitors start to follow, this might create a whole new landscape for marketers to leverage. From now on customers might not only be displaying the brand they purchase, but they might become a white canvas for display advertising to fill.

Shiftwear seems confident. It's taking preorders for three different styles of shoe for $150, $250, and $350 on Indiegogo with a delivery date of fall 2016. Five people have even put down $1,000 each for a limited edition pair with an even larger e-paper display encasing most of the shoe, while more than 300 backers have paid nearly $75,000 for cheaper models.

So watch out marketers, this is becoming real!

Source: http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/1/9830722/shiftwear-sneaker-e-paper-display-indiegogo