Taiwanese Innovation: Magic Click Shoes

The other day a friend of mine showed me a shoe that she designed and created herself.  I was amazed because I’ve never been the artistic type.  I can’t draw.  I don’t even try to sculpt, and the only thing I’ve ever painted has been the occasional wall.  So when she brought out this great pair of “kicks” and told me she designed them and made them herself, needless to say I was impressed.  (The only things I’ve ever made that were beautiful were my daughters, and even at that my wife did most of the work.)  She said, “You can make shoes, too.”  Then she whipped off her shoe and took it apart and made another one…in about 30 seconds.

It turns out that her father had an idea a while back and that idea has now blossomed full-grown into Magic Click Shoes.  He’s an inventor and apparently is interested in shoes. So he created and developed a shoe sole, on which you can change the uppers and have other designs.  Let me give you a scenario. 

Say you’re at work, and you’re wearing a comfortable pair of sandals, but that night you have plans to go somewhere.  You’ve brought a change of clothes, but rather than a different pair of shoes, you just reach into your purse pull out a new design and change the upper part of the shoe…it’s magic.  For men they can change from a comfortable beach sandals to a pair of dress shoes with only a few clicks.  What a cool idea.  The shoes aren’t just open toe sandals, they’re also fully enclosed dress shoes.  They make shoes for kids, too. 

The way they work is this:  You pull out the insole, through the back of the shoe.  Then you click off the upper, by pushing it in toward the center of the shoe.  Then click on the new upper by pushing outward toward the outside of the shoe.  Put the insole back in and like magic you have a new shoe.  The design is so simple that you’re children will have fun redesigning their own shoes.

The shoes are re-usable and can be changed hundreds of times.  They are also comfortable and attractive.  And best of all because of their unique design it makes owning a lot of different styles of shoes economical and space saving, they take up a lot less space than would be required for the same number of pairs of regular shoes. 

Finally, this is a great green design.  The amount of material necessary to make two pairs of these shoes is substantially less than would be required to make two pairs of regular shoes. 

If you are interested in the shoes you can contact Jing Yang at aliceaykimo@hotmail.com or telephone at Taiwan country code 04-2656-1115 or through me at cbanducci@gmail.com. 

Here's a video so you can watch how quickly the changes can be made, and you can have a new pair of shoes.

And finally, there's this: