Designworks, a BMW Group subsidiary have collaborated with sporting giant Puma to created a futuristic and fashion-forward sports shoe called the X-CAT DISC.
The shoe borrows technology from the BMW GINA Light Visionary Model, a concept car with a seamless, flexible, fabric outer shell stretched over a movable substructure, whose functions were only enabled when actually needed.
Instead of using traditional lacing system, this system works with a rotating disc that pulls internal wires to fasten and unfasten the shoe. Using only one thin layer of stretchable and super-light GINA material, the shoe is supposed to wrap around the foot like a second skin. Additional seams are no longer necessary and the shoe’s dynamic properties are designed to feel natural. They have re-engineered the original material used on the BMW GINA Light Visionary Model concept car to ensure it was breathable and sufficiently durable to meet the needs of a shoe. Laser-cut perforations flow across the front of the X-CAT, create the impression of movement, while adding ventilation.
The BMW X-CAT DISC was officially launched on 1 July 2016 and is now available in selected Puma stores across the world. You can also check out the Puma online store where it retails at a “reasonable” $ 135.
If X-CAT DISC proves successful, we will soon be seeing a transfer of technology to soccer shoes, running shoes etc. hopefully. Oh! One other thing, it is only available in “silver metallic-sodalite blue-oatmeal”. Fancy that?
#X-CAT #Puma
