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Wahu and the shoe takes another shape

The sole of the adaptive shoe Wahu

Its name is Wahu, it seems almost an exclamation and instead is a sneaker hi tech, that will arrive for the end of the year and that was designed by a girl from Milan.

Wahu

It’s an idea of Patrizia Casali, 27 years old graduated to the Polytechnic of Milan in Bio engineering and Bio medical engineering. The idea was born about a year ago, the company at the end of july. With Patrizia there are a designer, a mechanical and an electronic engineer.

Patrizia and her team are inside e-Novia, company that finances and support them. They so realized an unique technologic shoe, infact it’s equipped with a digital sole.

Wahu
Patrizia Casali presented her new sole to the CES 2020

The first collection of Wahu will be produced in cooperation with an italian luxury brand. 150 pieces will be commercialized, a capsule collection to understand how the people reacts to this new. The first product that will be sold is linked with the urban field, Patrizia Casali anticipates. It will be a shoe thought to be wear every day and for all the occasions, not only about the style but even about the weather: infact it will adapt itself even in conditions of snow or ice.

Obviusly a field that was largely studied is the sportis one, especially they are focusing on the running. Another important study is the one of the healthcare sector and the one of the safety on the work place.

But its prompt usage is the urban frost one, infact in the areas like the far South and the far North of the world we have, during a daytime, really strong variations of temperature and weather conditions. Currently in these latitudes the people are forced to change the show even four times per day to face the weathered. This sole might be the solution to it thanks to its adaptive skills always ready for every situation.

How does the adaptive sole work

The sole has an electronic card linked to the sensors. Furthermore thanks to the informations received it can change its own shape and adapt itself to the changing of the external conditions: both about the external temperature and about the soil met, but even about the feet shape of who is wearing it.

wahu
Detail of the Wahu sole that can change shape by adapting itself to the soil

The collected datas are made by an algorithm, which is able to analize the micro sliding that happens between the soil and the sole. When this passes a specific limit, the sole activates itself to change its shape. It so changes the grip and the cushioning, so to answer in the best way to the external inputs.

But that’s not all, thanks to the sensor of which it’s equipped it’s possible to evaluate the gait and the pressure of the feet (if it’s standard or not). Those datas can be useful for the doctors and the therapists to improve painful chronic conditions.

The anti fall functions

This sole is composed by interconnected holes and microcompressors that can be managed even through an app, so to always have the confort and the performances under control.

It’s so perfect for the trail, the trekking but even for the normal urban contest. The sole has areas that differently orient themselves thanks to the microcompressors to change and to give the best possible grip in every condition.

Two are the modes of the sole currently available: the flat mode and the pumpet mode, for a high difference up to 8 mm and 2.5 bar in the version pumped.

The battery at the moment lasts 24h but it’s still a prototype, so once on the marketplace we wonder some improvement about the lasts.

Wahu was presented to the CES in Las Vegas and it already obtained the prize for the Innovation Award Honorees in the section “wearable technologies”.

This post is also available in: Italiano