Bear step up in footwear
New tech turns shoes into power walkers
Walk this way — and you may walk 250% faster.
Robotics engineers claimed they’ve invented “the world’s fastest shoes” that will make people easily walk at speeds topping out at 7 mph.
The battery-powered kicks — called Moonwalkers — look like roller skates that can be strapped onto regular shoes, but they’re powered by AI and an algorithm that allows users to walk normally without any hand control, according to their creators.
The technology means wearers can go up and down stairs or stop at intersections without fear of a crash, the company says.
“Moonwalkers are not skates. They’re shoes. The world’s fastest shoes actually,” Xunjie Zang, founder and CEO of Shift Robotics, wrote on the company’s website.
“You don’t skate in them. You walk. You don’t have to learn how to use them, the shoes learn from you.”
Zang added that Moonwalkers are “not something you lace up and wobble away on — they’re highly engineered additions to your shoes that you strap on and walk at the speed of a run.”
The Moonwalkers went up for sale Monday as part of a Kickstarter campaign, with their release expected in March 2023 at a retail price of $1,399 — though contributors to the fundraising site are offered a discount.
They operate on a principle like a user is strolling along a “moving walkway,” with a top speed of about 7 mph, according to a Kickstarter. It comes equipped with a motor and 300-watts of power that can be recharged with a USB-C PD charger, according to the website.
The shoes purportedly have a range of between 5 and 7 miles and weigh about 4.2 lbs each — with a brake distance of about 2 feet on a dry road.
The idea for the shoes came when its founder was nearly hit by a car while riding a scooter to work, according to the Kickstarter.
Zang, who graduated from Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute, teamed up with engineers, roboticists and sneaker designers in an effort to “pack everything you find in an electric vehicle” into the shoe, he said.