Samsung's new Shortcut sneakers let you control your phone by clicking your heels
Samsung has created six pairs of Wizard of Oz-style smart sneakers
👟 Samsung has revealed a part of smart sneakers
👍 They’re called the Samsung Shortcut Sneaker
🦶 You can control phone using your feet and five gestures
🏆 Only six pairs will be made, and you could win them
We’ve seen smart watches, smart fridges and smart TVs, but now Samsung has created six pairs of smart sneakers called the Shortcut. (And no, we’re not affiliated with them in any way.)
Created by Samsung designer Roel van Hoff, The Shortcut Sneaker lets you control your phone by moving your feet. You can tap your heels together to answer your phone, like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, or even moonwalk to start playing your music.
The soles of the Shortcut sneakers contain motion sensors that track their position. There are five movements or gestures that you can do to trigger five distinct actions, but we’ll have to wait for those who win the six pairs of sneakers to find out what they are.
And yes, you read that right: the Samsung Shortcut Sneakers won’t be available to the general public, sadly. Six Samsung Members have a chance of snagging the smart sneakers, and you can enter the competiton from your Samsung Members account until July 9, with winners being announced during the week of July 15.
We’ve seen smart sneakers before, with Nike’s Back to the Future-inspired Nike HyperAdapt trainers being the first that spring to mind. The sneakers adaptively fit to the form of your feet and also feature a futuristic glowing LED.
We’ll have to see if Samsung’s Shortcut sneaker catches on, but people probably laughed at the first person who suggested putting wheels in the botton of a shoe or a slip-on with holes in them – and look how that turned out.
Adam Vjestica is The Shortcut’s Senior Editor. Formerly TechRadar’s Gaming Hardware Editor, Adam has also worked at Nintendo of Europe as a Content Marketing Editor, where he helped launch the Nintendo Switch. Follow him on X @ItsMrProducts.