Samsung’s wild new Shortcut sneakers let you play music and make phone calls by dancing
If you like starting a playlist on your phone with an impromptu moonwalk, Samsung just created a pair of limited edition sneakers for you.
The Shortcut Sneaker, which will unfortunately be limited to just six pairs, is made by a combination of Samsung, Elitac Wearables and sneaker designer Roel van Hoff. Samsung-owned marketing group Chiel Benelux also had a hand in it, so there’s definitely a whiff of vaporware in there, but we like the concept.
The Shortcut’s soles contain motion sensors that track their position, with five movements or gestures triggering five different actions. What exactly these shortcuts are is not yet completely clear, but some examples include making a phone call or playing music by performing a moonwalk.
As the video below explains, you won’t see these sneakers in stores. Instead, the six pairs are for competition winners, who must be Samsung members. You can enter the competition in your Samsung Members account until July 9, and the winners will apparently be announced the week of July 15.
With a design that includes several nods to Samsung’s Galaxy phones, there will certainly be no shortage of newcomers among hardcore Samsung fans.
Dancing to a familiar tune
While the Shortcut sneakers are more of a concept than a final product or a signal of Samsung’s move into sneakers, they’re certainly an intriguing idea that fits into a growing theme of hands-free motion control.
This week, Apple announced that AirPods Pro 2 owners will soon be able to use ‘head gestures’ in iOS 18 to answer phone calls. When the feature is enabled, you can reject a call by shaking your head (or nodding, if you want to answer the call).
While the Shortcut promises to be “the world’s first sneaker that lets you call your friends,” according to Samsung, this isn’t the first example of tech-filled shoes we’ve seen either, with Nike unveiling self-lacing laces. , app-controlled basketball sneakers in 2019 and these retro gaming shoes are still catching our attention in 2021.
Nothing can quite top this Back to the future-inspired Nike HyperAdapt sneakers, of course, but we’ll probably still throw our hat in the ring to Samsung’s Shortcut Sneaker as we secretly perfect our moonwalk.