Not everyone can afford to dish out $200K for a high-tech self-lacing shoe. Hell, even 720 bucks is overly excessive for a pair of sneakers however high-tech it may be. So, what do you do when you really want a Back to the Future II self-lacing shoe? Cobble up one with LEGO, of course. Wait, what? Is that even possible? Well, as it turns out, it can be done by combining some LEGO elements with other materials – as demonstrated by industrial designer, Vimal Patel. Armed with a dremel and a hot glue, he managed to retrofit a LEGO-powered self-lacing mechanism onto a worn out shoe and had it working like the real-deal, albeit a little slower.
Patel’s creation definitely don’t look as good as Nike HyperAdapt 1.0 and it is for sure less robust (because, LEGO and hot glue), but it works just fine for those who really have to have self-lacing to make themselves feel a little more high-tech. However, if you are the less picky sort and prefer to have kicks that does not involve battery, then you may want to settle for a less high-tech but still self-lacing shoe like the Powerlace for less than 200 bucks. So, the choice is really yours. On the side note, is there anything LEGO can’t do? Anything at all?
Keep going to for a brief clip of Patel’s LEGO self-lacing shoe in action.
Images: Vimal Patel.
via Sploid.