The Extraordinary Future of Shoes

On a recent Monday morning in Portland, Oregon—that walkable mecca routinely voted one of the country's most livable cities, and also home of the North American headquarters for Nike and Adidas—I found myself mesmerized by the feet of passersby. We look to our shoes not just to bring us from place to place but also to telegraph our identity. They're a little like cars in that sense, except we can buy a whole lot more of them, so we can change that identity from one day to the next. But despite the varying looks of shoes, the basics of making them haven't changed much. Until now.

Since pretty much the dawn of the Industrial Age, shoes have been made like this: pieces of leather and other materials cut and sewn together in what's called the "upper," then glued to a hard sole. Despite the machine element, much is still done by hand, with skilled workers needed to put the shoes together; materials are often sourced from different places, with shoes shipped back and forth several times before completion. But two years ago, in the lead-up to the London Olympics, Nike and Adidas released their first knitted running shoes: Flyknit for Nike, Primeknit for Adidas. Each sneaker's upper is machine-woven from a single piece of fused yarn. Less waste, less labor, and a cool new look.