Viral AI-powered shoes learn the way you walk & look totally surreal

A new shoe, named the Shift Moonwalkers, claim to let you “walk at the speed of run” and utilize AI algorithms to bend the shoe to your own walking gait.

Launched on Kickstarter in 2022, the Moonwalkers are a motorized shoe that uses wheels to speed up your walking. Beating out its original $90,000 goal with total funding of $329,409, the Shift Moonwalkers appear to be prepping for launch.

Developed by a company called Shift, the Moonwalkers will cost you $1399 with a $50 deposit required to preorder. They claim that it can help you “walk” up to seven miles per hour, and have an average range of 6.5 miles before needing to be recharged.

Shift has implemented a machine learning algorithm, referred to as an AI to assist with the way it behaves while walking. It’ll begin to “learn” your walking gait as you get accustomed to the newfound way of moving with your legs.

In the demo video, founder Xunjie Zhang explained that you simply move faster to accelerate and can walk up stairs by setting it into a “locked” mode. This is done by lifting your heel into position.

Shift also claims that the shoes can take on almost any “urban” terrain, like concrete, dirt tracks, and more. They’re even water-resistant when you happen to hit a puddle.

Don’t expect them to be in stores yet

However, the Moonwalkers aren’t actually the shoe you’ll be wearing during the day, but more of a rollerskate you strap around your foot. It does mean that they can support any type of shoe, rather than selling them in particular sizes.

The Moonwalkers haven’t been released into the wild just yet, but a few outlets like LinusTechTips‘ ShortCircuit have tested them out. In the videos, and out in a real setting, they seem quite loud and a little clunky.

However, watching tech personalities skim across terrain does seem to prove that they work as advertised.