For shame. We know good and well engineers can concoct energy-generating garb that actually looks good enough to wear, but evidently those fashion-minded gurus weren't hired for this project. Granted, we have all ideas the image you're quizzically staring at above is NTT's first go at a pair of power-packing sandals, but there's clearly a good ways to go before these things are cute / safe enough to wear on the streets. Might we suggest shoving all that hardware inside of something? The "all hanging out" look just isn't working here.

[Via TokyoMango, image courtesy of AFP / Getty]

Personally, we'd prefer slipping our feet into the WiFi-detecting Nike Dunks if given a choice, but it's hard to argue with the smooth factor bundled with the highly customized kicks shown above. Dubbed Illuminated Confusion, the shoes feature a pattern print with "neon green light-up lateral sides that either blink or glow." The lighting on each shoe gets powered by a single AAA cell, and you'll even get a free "custom box" with you order. And considering the $400 price tag and two to three week wait time, we wouldn't expect anything less. Vid after the jump.

We've been hearing about MIT spinoff VectraSense's Verb for Shoe "smart shoe" since 2004, but the company is finally taking preorders, and if you've got an extra $700, you can now blow it on some of the most ridiculous kicks ever designed. Four years and several hundred melodramatic product renders later, the basic idea is the same: an embedded computer automatically adjusts the shoe to your feet, syncs with your PC, and communicates with the shoes of others to exchange contact information. We're not sure why you'd want to drop seven Bens on this functionality (we'd rather carry a cell phone and laptop and wear non-ridiculous shoes, you know?) but hey, if you're going to be a fashion disaster, you might as well do it with wireless capabilities.

While we've seen the swoosh used on questionably licensed apparel before, we're fairly certain that a one-off Japanese e-tailer isn't selling a svelte Nike USB flash drive before the company itself with due permissions in place. Nevertheless, users can (well, for the time being, at least) pick the 1GB training shoe USB drive for their Mac or PC, and while it doubles as a keychain or hangs on tight to your Kensington lock port, the real utility is stored beneath the toe. Admittedly, it doesn't look half bad (click through for more proof), but we'd recommend plopping down your ¥2,480 ($20) real quick like before the legal teams return on Monday.

[Via EverythingUSB]

Whenever a notable article about RFID pops into our feed reader, a battle commences with our inner geek in one corner, and our inner luddite on the other (guess which one wins most often.) On the one hand, the concept of implanting tiny electronic chips into things is inherently appealing to us; on the other, we're extremely aware of the potential for abuse, especially considering that one of RFID's predecessors was developed by the Soviets for the purpose of espionage. The latest news from the RFID scene is that European shoe company Reno GmbH is to embed RFID tags into the soles of a large proportion of all the shoes that it sells across 1,700 outlets in Europe. Instead of just slapping the tags onto a label (which is easily removable), Reno GmbH has struck a deal with Checkpoint Systems Inc. to integrate the chips within the soles: the justification for this approach (as opposed to using stick-on tags) is that it should curb thefts of products on display, as well as those being tried on by customers / thieves. Now, we're not privy to the figures regarding thefts from shoe shops, but we can't imagine that this crime is common enough to offset the cost that implanting RFID chips into rubber shoes will rack up. Besides, doesn't this plan undermine any kind of trust that may have been present between the potential customer and the shoe shop? Then there's the absurd justification that the tags would prevent the theft of shoes on display: who steals a single shoe? In then end, we're left to accept the inevitability that more products will get tags, and those tags will reveal more information about our increasingly open (some say intruded) lives. Fortunately, this rather unjustified example is only one of the first steps.

Now that you're packing a cellphone with a vibrating touchscreen, have glasses that rattle your brain if you try to get a bit of shut-eye, and nod your head to the beat of your rumbling headphones, why not put a little shake in your shoes, too? The cleverly named Good Vibrations might sport a website that was probably built in Marky Mark's heyday, but the kicks it sells claim to be therapeutic in nature. The thick-soled shoes feature a non-stick grip, on / off switch, and a rechargeable battery that reportedly provides around five hours of feet shakin' therapy. Designed to massage away the aches and pains throughout the day rather than after the damage is done, these unisex slip-ons are constructed with Spandex, lined with suede, and just might cause fits of laughter if you're the ticklish type. The Good Vibrations shoes are strangely available in just four sizes, leaving most of you with a bit too much (or too little) room inside, but for just about 60 bucks, the fun factor here is probably enough to put aside the fact that they aren't likely to fit.

[Via AmericanInventorSpot]

Although it shouldn't take you by surprise to get held up a bit while going through airport security these days, a good few travelers are a bit perturbed by the Clear's problems with metal-infused footwear. Passenger's that spend more time cruising the friendly skies than motoring around in their own vehicle have the option to submit to a federal background check and cough up $100 in order to pass through newly-installed biometric scanners at certain airports such as Orlando International and New York's Kennedy Airport. However, even the snazzy scanners can't distinguish between benign and harmful metals, so customers who thought they'd save themselves the inconvenience of kicking off their kicks are still being forced to remove their shoes if even the slightest hint of metal is detected. Although the shoe scanners still won't be "broadly used" until they receive further TSA approval, Verified Identity Pass senior vice president Shawn Dagg simply suggested that "he hopes customers will learn to wear shoes without metal." We're sure that's exactly the answer these disgruntled customers were looking for, Mr. Dagg.

In an announcement sure to cause lazy people everywhere to raise their arms ever so slightly in glee, home appliance manufacturer Electrolux has revealed a "vacuum shoe" concept model. In order to accommodate the electric motor -- and store all the crap that you've left on your floor -- the concept design features a rather thick and ugly sole reminiscent of Cosmo Kramer's basketball sneakers, so you probably wouldn't want to do much walking outdoors in them. Seeing as this is just a concept model that's at least a couple of testing stages away from a real product, we wouldn't be surprised if the real model was even more "visually challenged." No matter, because a device that completes chores without the owner knowingly doing them is effectively impossible to price, although that doesn't mean Electrolux won't try. And if the vacuum shoe does manage to make it out of testing, it probably won't ship for a while: in other words, don't say we didn't warn you if the excuse of leaving mess around just "so you can have something to test it with when it ships" doesn't cut it with your significant other.