You Soon Might Be Able to Design Your Nike Shoes in Virtual Reality

Say goodbye to boring sneakers designed in regular, no good, boring reality! (Photo: Nike)

Take a moment to recall the last thing you drew in MS Paint. Now imagine it stamped on a shoe that you shaped in thin air with a similar toolbar. How does that make you feel?

Be sure to contemplate that image, because you may soon have an opportunity to make it a reality. Per a report from Quartz, Nike was recently awarded a patent for an invention that would let you custom-design a pair of kicks via projected virtual reality.

Here’s what we can discern from the wording and images in the official filing: Say you think you’re supertalented, with enough chops to design your own shoe line. (Me too, Kanye, hiiii!) You’ll get cozy with your computer at a desk, along with what the patent refers to as an “interacting device” (the patent makes it look like a stylus) and a disembodied mannequin’s foot. Then you’ll slip on a pair of virtual reality goggles. The patent doesn’t specify which devices Nike’s Matrix shoe will be designed for, but the obvious contestant here is Microsoft’s trippy new HoloLens. Unlike most other virtual reality headsets, the HoloLens comes with a virtual toolbox that allows you to build stuff in empty space and then 3D-print it.

Callout 200 represents all the tension in your back from sitting at a desk too long. (Photo: USPTO)

With all the equipment in place, you hold the mannequin foot in front of you and begin sculpting the design of the shoe around it, navigating a toolbox of actions shown in your goggles with your trusty stylus. That information is fed from your goggles to your computer and — in a perfect world — then automatically saved to your desktop. No animals or realities are harmed during the process.

The interface seems loosely based on MS Paint, which is a great sign. (Photo via USPTO)

Because not everyone has the cash to drop on $500 virtual reality goggles, it’s safe to assume that if this invention ever comes to life, Nike will provide booths with all the necessary design materials at select stores.

The shoe company is already a well-established supporter of custom-designed footwear. If you step into a physical location, you can visit one of its design stations and touch every last swatch of fabric. Online, you can use the NIKEiD software to personalize the colors and textures of your sneakers. I am a graduate of the latter design school, and — despite the very conservative color scheme I picked — I still feel a little bit extra-powerful when I go for a jog.

It’s possible that this invention, as with many others in the patent club, may never see the light of day. The Marty McFlys of the world got their hopes up when Nike patented an “automatic lacing system” way back in 2008. It is 2015, and the American public still hasn’t gotten what it was promised.

Even so, these imaginative illustrations offer insight into the future design possibilities of virtual reality goggles: VR-designed eyeglasses! VR-designed wedding rings! VR previews of potentially regrettable tattoos! Think of all the poor decisions this technology will both enable and prevent!

While we wait, however, I guess we’ll have to settle for Kanye’s new sneakers. I hear he’s pretty passionate about them.

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