The magic of light entered again our coverage, this time in form of an incredible looking sneaker, the Onitsuka Tiger Sunotore 72.

Japan’s Onitsuka Tiger has been around since 1949 and is specialized in the manufacturing of sports shoes using original ideas and applying innovative,  epoch-making techniques.

The Electric Tiger Sunotore 72 trainers have been release last summer but actually the basic but classy design is more suitable for the winter season.

The reason for us posting about it is the shoes ability to start glowing when it gets dark or when they are hit by UV light. This glow is designed into the shoe concepts and transforms the shoes light changing ability into something like changing from day to a evening wardrobe. There is no electricity involved in the color transformation, it is done by using neon fluorescent print on the shoes upper material.

As unique as this shoes style is as unique is the background story of this particular design: the print is a detailed illustration of the Tokyo skyline paying homage to the incredible ambiance and energy of Japan. The print incorporates distinctive elements such as Tokyo’s unmistakable skyline, vibrant neon signage, transport, night markets, and vending machines. The light-up technology gives life to this design philosophy. Another nice example how a bit of technology spices up fashion design.

Available in three color ways: black, red and white via a number of online retailers like this one for as low as $88.39

One thing is for sure: wearing this sneakers lights up the dull, dark winter days.

ONO Running demonstrates how glowing sneakers can provide safety and a bit of fun. These Glow sneakers have the potential to (r)evolutionize sneakers for runner.

This may be a bold statement but I do believe the ONO Glow sneaker concept does add the high value of being more visible during running in low light condition and at night. Higher visibility means less likeliness to get hit by a car when running cross country.

The inventors of the ONO Glow sneaker Matt Galica and Elliott Temkin had such close encounters with cars during their regular runs and decided it’s time to change this.

They looked for a solution to ensure the visibility in any condition. After using reflective gear they realized quickly it’s short comings as such reflective products need light shining on it to visible.

Another wish was not using add-on accessories as they can be easily forgotten when leaving home. Add-on items have also the ‘habit’ to be just an add-on and as such not fitting well and might interfere with the running.

Their solution: using the entire sole of a running shoe to make runners more visible without the need for any add-on.

That’s what I call the perfect Wearable Electronic concept: add functionality to clothing items without changing their wear purpose and comport.

We asked Matt Galica how ONO Glow works: ‘The light comes from three color LEDs which is diffused through a particularly elegant substrate, a sophisticated type of side-emitting fiber optic that distributes light along its length giving 360 degrees of continuous illumination.‘

‘ONO Glow is designed in such a way that should you not want to light up, the Glow can easily be turned off by pressing a button on the side of the sole and the fiber optic element will blend discreetly into the mid-sole of the running shoe.‘

Although the illumination is the main feature of the ONO Glow, there is another technological highlight, the power source for the light. According to Matt, ‘… it will be powered by a rechargeable battery that never needs replacing, and our innovative charging solution means no exposed terminals and nothing to plug into the shoe.’

Highly interesting statement which sound to me like inductive charging as you might have seen on tooth brushes. Very smart, very clever and a perfect solution for a shoe where keeping a charger socket clean might be a too big of a challenge.

To add a bit of personalization to the ONO sneakers, the light’s color can be selected to fit everyones preferences and taste. A nice finishing touch of a great concept with many elegant solutions.

Check out the video to see yourself the sophisticated glow of the ONO sneaker:
[video]http://youtube.com/watch?v=ACSMtbjb2DQ[/video]
The ONO Glow sneaker is at a demonstrator stage at this moment but Matt and Ellitott look for funding and business partners to start production of the first ONO Glow sneakers as soon as possible.

Anyone interested in a partnership can contact Matt and Elliott via their website or drop a note in our comments.

Let’s see if the ONO Glow can hit the stores and running tracks before the end of this year, just in time for the short daylight season.

A group of students from the Utrecht School of Arts (NL) explored wearable electronic by adding interactivity to shoes.

The result of this projects is the FATS shoe. FATS stands for ‘Fitness Achievement Technology System‘ and not as you might assume for ‘being fat’.

The idea of the FATS shoe concept is: the shoes reward physical performance with a visual attractive design. This will stimulate to practice sports and exercise more for an always renewing design on the shoe.

Each time you do some exercise the color pattern on the shoe will pick up your physical activity and rewards you with a changing color scheme on the shoe.

Case study: each Monday you start with a blank shoe. To get more color in your life and on your sneakers you have to accomplish a certain activity level a day for more color and a healthy lifestyle. If you are able to do more than that, you might even unlock the secret rainbow, nightrider levels at the end of the week.

A motion sensor is integrated into the shoe’s heel together with the electronic to watch over your activity. The color changing effect is achieved by waving yarns with glass-fibers into the outer material of the shoe. These Glass-fiber yarns show the colored light coming from LEDs inside the heel.

A brilliant simple idea from the technical side. Activity monitors like the Nike+ become very popular and they work on a similar principle: each time you go the ‘extra mile’ you get rewarded with a motivational speech from prominent sports personalities.

As the FATS concept is using LED light, the most suitable time of getting the most effect of the color changing feature would be in the evening or at night.

The Students envision that kids could be a perfect target group for FATS shoes. Children shoes with flashing lights are on the market for a long time. The flashing lights are either for fun or for safety purpose. FATS shoes for kids would add even more fun and an additional fashion element to our kids sneakers.

I wonder if one of the ‘big’ sneaker companies would pick up the FATS concept and use it for their next fitness sneaker range.

Here is the list of the FATS project team: Merlinda Prizreni, Ka-min Lung, Jos Herder, Michiel Rotgans, Ana Resende, Melissa Bonvie and Suze Ruyten.

A big thumbs-up to this highly creative Student team which created the FATS sneakers.