Imagine being able to quickly run to the grocery store or walk your dog as if you were on a moving walkway. An American start-up company called Shift Robotics has invented a device that can be strapped onto your shoes to boost your walking speed by up to 250%. This means that you could walk at speeds of up to 11 km/h, about three times faster than your average walking speed. The “Moonwalkers” device looks like a pair of skates but does not have freewheeling capabilities to prevent you from losing your balance.
Thanks to machine learning algorithms, the Moonwalkers only move when you do. They can stop when you want them to, be locked for going up or down stairs, and automatically regulate their speed when going downhill. If you need to hop on a bus, you can activate the electronic brake by lifting your right heel and then placing it back on the ground. To return to walking at a faster pace, you can exit “lock mode” by lifting your right heel in the air and rotating it clockwise while keeping your toe on the ground.
A video of the shoes shared on TikTok went viral earlier this year, racking up 24.9 million views.
‘Enhance walking, don’t replace it
The founder and CEO of Shift Robotics, Xunjie Zhang, came up with the idea for his invention after nearly crashing on his scooter while commuting to work. He began to wonder why he, like many others, never walked to work.
According to Shift Robotics’ Kickstarter crowdfunding page, “A lot of people don’t rely on walking. This is surprising, considering it’s much safer, more convenient, and better for the environment.”
The team said the problem is that walking is too slow and inefficient. So they made it their mission to enhance walking instead of replacing it. With a team of jet propulsion engineers from Carnegie Mellon’s Robotic Institute and roboticists and sneaker designers, Zhang spent the last five years trying to create the world’s fastest shoes “relying on the body’s own engineering.” Shift Robotics says that, unlike skating, the Moonwalkers require no skills to learn – it’s genuinely walking.
According to the company, the AI adapts to each user’s gait, and it takes fewer than 10 steps for the algorithms to learn the user’s walking patterns. “Like the moving walkways you see in airports, with every step you’re making, the conveyor belt moves underneath your feet,” Zhang told Insider. “The faster you walk, the faster the shoes walk with you.”
“No freewheeling” is one of the Moonwalkers’ biggest safety features, he added:
The Moonwalker’s shoes are secured with a magnetic buckle, which can be easily unfastened in case the device malfunctions, according to Xunjie Zhang, the founder and CEO of Shift Robotics. The team launched Moonwalkers on Kickstarter in October 2022 and has since raised almost $330,000.
As of May 2023, Insider reported that the company had received over 2,000 orders for the shoes. The shoes were tested by people aged 15 to over 60, and most people could walk proficiently in the shoes within 10 to 15 minutes of strapping them on, according to Zhang. The Moonwalkers are only available for purchase in the United States and cost $1,399 per pair. The high price tag has attracted some sarcastic comments on social media.
One TikTok user wrote about the viral TikTok video featuring the shoes, “So expensive roller skates?” Another comment read, “My city’s beat sidewalk would never make this feasible.” For more information on this story, you can watch the video above.