Nike Want to Create Treadmill-Fitted Sneakers

As brands look to stay ahead in the sneaker tech war and one-up their rivals, have proposed one of the more bizarre innovations ever. Forget 3D-printing, , or — the mad scientists at Beaverton want to put a mini treadmill in your sneakers.

Touted as a ‘rotatable conveyor element’, the mechanism isn’t designed to help you lose calories, but rather, help you creep into your creps easier. Nike’s patent is ‘configured to rotatably engage a body part of the wearer as the foot enters the space and draw the foot into the space.’ Looks like the days of the ol’ shoehorn are numbered…

, so the concept of a conveyor belt to help you get in doesn’t really seem that farfetched.

The mechanism could make use of a magnetic field sensor that detects the wearer's foot as it enters the sneaker. Alternatively, an exterior or interior switch could be used to activate the conveyor belt. We’ll have to wait and see what Nike whip up — or if they even follow through with the idea at all.