i am sure we are all familiar with Wellington Boots, but the Wellington Boots we know today shares nothing in common with its aristocratic past. these days, they are mostly made of materials like rubber and polyvinyl chloride and have seen applications ranging from personal use to construction to field works, in wet and muddy conditions. of course, you can still find Wellington Boots crafted from leather for hunting, but for our everyday life, it is commonly used and referred to as rain boots. they are hardy pair of footwear, but the thing is, due to its physical size, it requires quite a bit of space in the closet and you don’t wear them unless it is raining, which where the problem arises. what if you are caught out in the rain? these are two problems which Estel Alcaraz’s Sardines Rain Boots aimed to eradicate and from what we see, its designer Estel Alcaraz, might have hit the nail on the head.
Alcaraz’s goals were simple: a pair of boots that does what rain boots should i.e. keep water out and they should be compact enough to be stuff into your bag when not needed. the result is the Sardines Rain Boots that are made out of recyclable mono-material called thermoplastic polyurethane which provides the same functionality, but also elastic enough to allow the boot to be rolled into a fifth of its original size. each boot comes with a flexible strap to keep the rolled up boot in its compact form and for storage in your bag. admittedly, even at a fifth of its original size, a pair is still pretty space consuming, but it is a significant reduction size and if you have a pretty huge tote or something similar, you can now bring a pair around for those unexpected downpour. brilliant idea? you bet it is. so where can you get one? well, we are ashamed to say that we are as clueless as you are. for now, it seems like a concept product to us. unfortunate, it is. if you guys have any ideas of the commercial status of Sardines, do leave your comments below.
via Design Boom
