April 9, 2001

1:14 PM

Boingy boingy boingy.Has anyone had any experience with these? The movies on the website look pretty cool.. and it would seem that doctoring those videos up would take some considerable effort, so I'm guessing it's not a hoax?
posted by PWA_BadBoy (22 comments total)

Boing Boing?
posted by waxpancake at 1:34 PM on April 9, 2001

I'm guessing it's not a hoax?


Here's the company that manufactures them. These things are neat. The mechanics and designs are here. The whole thing about it breaking after 100hrs makes me rethink leaping tall buildings in a single bound.
posted by samsara at 1:34 PM on April 9, 2001

Yeah, they look like a bone-breaking good time.
posted by waxpancake at 1:41 PM on April 9, 2001

Ow, my ankles...
posted by jennyb at 1:41 PM on April 9, 2001

They look very cool, indeed, but did you see the prices? By today's exchange rates, 858 Euros is about US$769!!!!!!
posted by jpoulos at 1:42 PM on April 9, 2001

Droooooool. I want to try these out sooo bad, broken bones or no. Jogging in the park would certainly be entertaining.
posted by Skot at 1:51 PM on April 9, 2001

OMIGHOD! I can only describe these things as erotic. I don't normally drag people into my cube to make them look at webpages, but those things are amazing. It seems like they are based on the tech that allows legless runers to compete (wow, found lots of nasty pages while trying to link to that). Thanks for the great link, better than porn.
posted by thirteen at 2:03 PM on April 9, 2001

I'd definately choose these over the russian built, gasoline powered shoes simply on environmental issues. But how hard would it be to replace the gasoline shoe engine with an engine that uses some renewable resource?
posted by the_ill_gino at 2:30 PM on April 9, 2001

I feel as though I am watching Inspecter Gadget auditions.
posted by I am Generic at 2:44 PM on April 9, 2001

Somewhere, a trial lawyer is having an orgasm.
posted by aaron at 3:14 PM on April 9, 2001

They look just like the devices sprinters without legs wear in track and field events.
posted by Mark at 3:19 PM on April 9, 2001

This sure beats the hell out of Ginger.
posted by webmutant at 4:07 PM on April 9, 2001

Maybe it is ginger.... da da da! (the previous to be read in scary climatic voice)
posted by TractorInc at 4:42 PM on April 9, 2001

Finally, 7-league boots!
posted by amanda at 5:19 PM on April 9, 2001

You can see these babies in action at Disneyland California during their Eureka parade. There are 2 guys hoping around on them throughout the performance. The get around pretty damn fast on those things.
posted by Brilliantcrank at 5:26 PM on April 9, 2001

I want, I want, I want...Those look fun as hell.

Heh. I was going to save one of those movies and put it on filepile.org. I clicked on one to let it load, and at the same time clicked on the latest movie uploaded at filepile. It was, of course, one featuring these shoes.

I'm adding these to my list of stuff I plan on purchasing "When I Get Rich".
posted by crushed at 6:08 PM on April 9, 2001

A few thoughts:

1) 100 hrs before they break!? Who's gonna be keeping my time?! Man, if those things break, they will almost assuredly do so under higher than average load meaning that some unsuspecting customer is going to be approaching the Earth with a great deal of velocity and nothing to effect deceleration. BY the way, for those of you keeping score at home, that's approximately $13/hr...

2) The quality and subject matter of those movies made me feel like I was about to view the latest nominee of the Darwin Awards, especially the one where the guy was jumping off from a wall and the other where they were jumping next to the street...

3) I smell a new olympic sport even bigger than this one...
posted by fooljay at 7:46 PM on April 9, 2001

a friend, avid mountain biker, told me about a particualr type of crash jokingly called a "yard sale". evidently you go flying kit over kettle and everything in your pockets goes just *everywhere*. the same concept would be, like, so many times worse in these things.

(but i still want some while i've still got full insurance)
posted by patricking at 8:00 PM on April 9, 2001

Ahhh yes, the "yard sale" is why I have given up the "split pines" for the snowboard...
posted by fooljay at 11:05 PM on April 9, 2001

Suggestion: Open at least four of those movies at the same time, loop them, and play Moby's "Find My Baby."
posted by gluechunk at 12:29 AM on April 10, 2001

1. Wow! I'll be able to dunk now!
2. 5% risk of breakage after 100 hours, if you weigh how much?
3. Slam dancing: imagine the possibilities...
posted by talos at 5:31 AM on April 10, 2001