Electric Shoes: Good For the Sole

Farmer, Zhao Xueqin, of Wugang, Henan province has invented a pair of electric shoes, which are actually battery-powered skates featuring headlights, indicators, brakes and brake lights.

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He claims wearers of these special “skates” can run more than 100 miles a day with just the simple press of a button which propels them forward at speeds of up to 15 miles per hour.

His inspiration sprang from a sense of compassion for the children who live in the rural regions of the country where every day they must walk many miles to go to school.

“My hometown is a mountainous village. The nearest school is more than 20km (more than 12 miles) away from our village, and kids have to get up each morning at 3am, walking three to four hours to arrive at school… I was thinking that it would be great if I could invent a pair of shoes that could do the running for the kids,” said Zhao.

It took him four years and £10,000 (more than US $14,000) to create and patent his electric shoes.

“The shoes can run continuously for three hours. For long distances, the rider can carry spare batteries. The design is actually very simple. It’s just a pair of trainers, a pair of 12V batteries and two skates, added Zhao.

The shoes are easy to wear once balance and direction are established and the user learns to lean forward while in motion.

Incredibly clever and useful, these shoes are an amazing invention certain to make life easier for many school children living in remote areas of China.

What’s next, my sustainable friends?

Can you possibly top this?

(Link)

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MDeeDubroff

M Dee Dubroff is the penname of this freelance writer and former teacher originally from Brooklyn, New York. A writer of ghostly and horror fiction, she has branched out into the world of humorous non fiction writing and maintains eight web sites covering a wide variety of topics. She also…
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3 comments
  Livefyre
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Wayne
Wayne

Most places that I personally been to would not have the power to charge the batteries, but the still have schools. And if you say solar, then they would have to have several several per child because they usually leave at dark 0'30 in morning get back home as it turns dark usually, so recharging in the middle of night via solar is not an option without some very expensive storing of that energy. Understanding that not every village can have a school because of the lack of educated teachers, and in some cases the villages don't have enough children to attend to justify a dedicated school BUT if they had the money for all that solars stuff then they could afford to live closer to the school.

fyr3658
fyr3658

build a school near the village