For those who don’t play guitars, you might not be familiar with guitar pedals like the Wah pedal. Essentially what the Wah pedal does is that it shifts the tone of your guitar’s sound as you step on it, and how much it shifts depends on how much you step. Guitar players are known to rock the pedals back and forth which ultimately ends up creating the “wah” sound.
That being said, it looks like Converse has decided to be extra efficient by building a Wah pedal into a pair of Converse All-Star hi-top sneakers. The idea of these sneakers actually came about several years ago by design agency Critical Mass during a Chuck Hack event, but Converse recently decided to bring it to life with the help of CuteCircuit.
How this shoe works is that there are flexible sensors built into the sole of the shoe that will detect movements similar to a Wah pedal. They’ve also made it wireless (the prototype in the video above is still wired) which means that information from the shoe is sent via Bluetooth to a Wah Box, which in turn helps generate the Wah sound based on your movement.
Its wireless connectivity also means that users can connect the shoes with their phones and computers instead of an amp. Unfortunately it seems that these shoes are extremely limited as there are only 23 pairs at the moment, and there is no word on how much they will cost or when they will be released.
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