BMW designs laceless running shoes that use car technology
Some of the best cars in the industry are manufactured by BMW. This time, Designworks, a BMW group company, has joined forces with Puma to come up with an inventive running shoe called X-Cat DISC.
“The approach was to look at every aspect of making a shoe and try to reimagine it. Freeing yourself of what is here now can be an enjoyable and rewarding exercise, typically it also speeds up change”, says Adrian van Hooydonk, Senior Vice President BMW Group Design.
BMW Group Design had introduced the BMW GINA Light Visionary Model – a concept car with a seamless fabric outer shell in the year 2008, which consisted of a flexible material stretched over a movable substructure where functions were only enabled when actually needed.
Based on the same concept, X-Cat DISC has an exterior made of flexible, ergonomic and lightweight GINA material, which can be comfortably wrapped around the feet. The original automotive material has been re-engineered to ensure that it is breathable and durable to fit the needs of a shoe. These shoes don’t have laces. Instead, it uses rotating discs that pulls internal wires to close and open the shoes. Inspired by interconnecting gears, the sole design provides engineered flexibility and interlinked stability.
X-Cat DISC is available at a price of $135 and is being sold by Puma.
