There are few things worse than your phone dying while walking around exploring a new city or traipsing some trails with your friends. Once that battery symbol moves into the red zone, you can kiss your Instagram pictures–and more seriously, your emergency call access–goodbye.
Enter SolePower, a Kickstarter campaign out of Carnegie Mellon that seeks to provide people with a "power generating shoe insole for charging portable electronics while you walk." The company hopes to raise $50,000 by July 18 to start working towards finalizing its product.
The idea was born from a capstone mechanical engineering product by Matthew Staton and Hahna Alexander.
"We initially designed SolePower to simply light an LED on the shoe so students walking to and from campus at night would be more visible," Stanton told CNET. "After we developed a proof of concept prototype for the class we realized that there were many more applications for the device."
Here's how it works. All you have to do is slip the SolePower into your shoe and tuck the charging wire through your laces, and plug it into the battery (typically strapped around ankle or clipped to the top of the shoe). Walk, run, skip, hop, hike, or dance around, go about your daily routine; the insoles are podiatrist–approved, so there's no need to be über-cautious. To charge up, all you have to do is unplug the battery from the insole and plug it into your phone, music players, GPS, radio, or other portable electronic devices.
The device is designed to be able to charge up the battery after 2.5 and 5 miles of basic walking for a full iPhone charge. While 2.5 miles may seem scary on a treadmill, it shouldn't in your normal life–People walk about 2.5 miles on average each day. Waterproof and water resistant, he insole itself is sturdy, too–it is simulated to 100 million steps, essentially meaning that you'll wear out your sneaks sooner than you wear through the soles.
SolePower has big dreams for its product. The startup plans to enter the outdoor enthusiasts market, but later on down the line, it hopes to follow a buy–one–give–one sales model (think TOMS) in order to provide developing nations with access to portable electricity. But the altruistic side to SolePower doesn't stop there. The founders have also considered the potential payoffs from using the electricity generating insoles in disaster relief situations, when volunteers and victims have little or no power and need to call for help.
SolePower plans to be in production and distribution come June and December 2014. Pricing will be around $150 to $175 for a pair of insoles. Pitch in and support the cause here!
