Volvorii Smart Shoes Could Be the Future of Footwear



	April 15, 2015

Imagine shoes that you can customize on the spot to match your outfit. That may soon be a reality thanks to the Volvorii Timeless Indiegogo for e-ink heels whose colors and patterns can be controlled via a smartphone app. Basically, the Volvorii smart shoe is a classic leather peep toe heel but embedded with a flexible electronic paper screen that can be made to display different things.

Currently, the Volvorii smart shoe’s screen appears to be black and white e-paper but future models might hold color e-paper screens like the Pebble Time Kickstarter. It’s still early days for the wearable shoe tech market but Volvorii offers a glimpse into the possible future of footwear. The e-ink heels were developed by Lithuania-based startup iShüu Technologies.

A working prototype of the Volvorri was third party tested by Boston-based Dragon Innovation to give Indiegogo backers some peace of mind. You can now pre order the Volvorri e-ink heels from the crowdfunding site for $249, which Volvorri notes is a huge discount from the retail value, which has yet to be announced. The company hopes to ship the Volvorri smart shoes to all backers by the end of December 2015.

The Volvorri e-ink heels come in both black and white, and can theoretically be customized to match a variety of different outfits. An accompanying smartphone app to be released at the same time as the smart shoes will allow wearers to change the screen’s display. At that point, it will be up to Volvorri to release different patterns or allow users to design their own patterns through the app.

A Bluetooth low-energy receiver is concealed into the shoe’s sole allowing the smartphone app to communicate with the shoe’s display, as well as a 200 mAh battery that can be charged wirelessly. The Volvorri smart shoe will take two hours to fully charge and since e-ink uses such little power, the battery life is expected to last from two to six months depending on usage. The shoe also features fastener anchors on the front and back to allow for physical customization in the form of bows or diamantes, as well as digital.