Skip to main content

Puma wants ‘tech-savvy’ people to test its self-lacing shoes

Puma has announced its latest take on self-lacing shoes just a few weeks after Nike unveiled one of its own self-lacing models. The sneakers, called “Fi” for “Fit Intelligence,” are training shoes that can adapt to a wearer’s foot with the swipe of a module on top of the shoe’s tongue. A micromotor pulls a pair of blue cables that run through the sneaker, and tightness can be adjusted through a smartphone app or an Apple Watch.

The shoes are the successor to Puma’s first wirelessly connected self-lacing sneakers from 2016, the AutoDisc. They can be charged via a Qi wireless charging pad, and they last around five days. Like Nike’s self-lacing shoes, the Fi don’t have any tracking capabilities to do things like log steps or measure calories burned, which is a bit of a disappointment. Even Puma’s (recently re-released) RS-Computer shoes from 1986 could record distance, time, and calories, but they came at the cost of a chunky heel.

In an interesting twist, Puma is putting out a call for “tech-savvy” people to beta test the shoe, so they can give feedback on its usability, design, engineering, and wearability. It makes sense that the company’s asking for feedback from regular customers since Puma says the Fi is made for workouts and light running.

My guess is that even with the feedback Puma receives from beta testers (which will probably be “add more features”), the Fi will remain self-lacing shoes for now. They’ll retail for $330 when they launch in 2020, which is $20 cheaper than Nike’s HyperAdapt BBs.

If you’re interested in trying out a pair, you can download Puma’s Pumatrac training app on iOS and Android to be notified when beta testing registration begins.



from The Verge - Teches http://bit.ly/2S8MUo4

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Magic Leap is shipping across (most of) the US

As Magic Leap holds the first developer conference for its Magic Leap One mixed reality headset, that headset has started shipping across the contiguous United States, instead of in a set of select markets. The Magic Leap One Creator Edition costs $2,295, just like before, but there’s now an installment plan that starts at $96 per month. All orders are supposed to arrive within 60 days. The Magic Leap One Creator Edition went on sale in early August, and while Magic Leap has touted it as a fully functional device, it’s basically meant for people who want to design apps, games, or art for mixed reality. We were ambivalent toward the hardware, which we found limited, and we noted that Magic Leap hadn’t shown off a lot of material that showcased its potential. The company’s developer conference keynote has revealed several new projects. Among other things, Spider-Man studio Insomniac Games is building an experience that will let you grow a holographic creature on your tabletop, and...

The company behind the adorably doomed robot Kuri is shutting down

Less than a month after Mayfield Robotics said it was stopping production on its Kuri home robot, the company announced today on its blog that the company will be shutting down. Mayfield Robotics launched in 2015 as part of Bosch’s Startup Platform, but struggled to integrate with and find a business fit within Bosch. Since the cancellation of its Kuri robot, Mayfield Robotics had been looking for external partners for long-term technology development, but was unable to find investment to support its future. The company will cease all operations by October 31st. We first met Kuri at CES 2017, and it wasn’t yet able to showcase all the features it was promised to have in the future. The robot was supposed to have smart assistant functionalities like an Amazon Echo, but with a much cuter face and movable body. Promo videos showed it working as a moving home security camera that was controllable through the Kuri app, but in the demonstration we saw, it only had as much functionality a...

Amazon’s plans for a New York office are under new scrutiny

A month ago, when Amazon announced that it would build regional offices in New York and Virginia at great expense to the taxpayers there, I wrote that it had misunderstood the moment : Perhaps the furor over Amazon’s regional offices will blow over. But it’s hard not to feel today as if the company misread the room — overestimating the public’s appetite for a billion-dollar giveaway to one of the world’s biggest companies, and underestimating the public’s ability to raise hell on- and offline. Amazon may yet feel that pain, in the long run. Today, Amazon met the room: 150 protesters who showed up to the first New York City Council hearing about the plan. According to reports from the scene, demonstrators’ concerns start with the $3 billion in incentives that New York plans to give Amazon in exchange for locating there — and, it says, creating 25,000 jobs. Here’s Leticia Miranda in BuzzFeed : ”You’re worth a trillion dollars,” New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson told the ...