LEDs Help 90s Fad Footwear Make a Cool Comeback

About twenty years ago light up sneakers were all the rave. Every kid had at least one pair and first grade gym class became a stomp fest, with kids jumping, running and dancing around to show off their flashy footwear. Unfortunately, like any great fashion fad it was gone way too soon…until now.

Light up shoes have been reborn in Tokyo-based studio, No New Folk, however, these aren’t the clunky light up sneakers you tore up the playground with twenty years ago. With a lot of design ingenuity and the magic of LED technology, LED light up shoes have been taken from 90s fashion fad to 21st Century fashion fabulous.

This fashion forward footwear is called, Orphe, and it uses over 100 LED lights in the sole of the shoe to create incredible moving patterns of white and colored light. It’s called a smart shoe system, primarily because it learns your footfall patterns and the rhythm of your step and can sync its light up patterns to your movements.

In case you didn’t think that was cool enough, Orphe is being heavily marketed to dance professionals because not only does it learn and track your footfall patterns; it also is able to sync colors and patterns to music. Not only that, you can personally control and design your own patterns and combinations of light and color via your computer, smartphone or tablet. Each design you make can be uploaded and shared with other Orphe users.

Orphe is definitely a creative re-imagining of the light up shoe. It’s brought a new level aspect of light and color to fashion in a way that is both inventive and highly engaging. Currently, the Orphe project is still crowdfunding to get enough income to bring these shoes to the mass market, so don’t expect to see them on store shelves just yet. Their chances are fairly good as the campaign is more than two thirds of the way funded already.