It only took Dorothy three clicks of her ruby heels for her to return to lovely Kansas. For us in reality, it takes a little more engineering and design. Dominic Wilcox, artist-designer-inventor, fabricated a more modern version of magical navigation footwear with a notably more understandable technology behind the inner workings. A global positioning system (GPS) device is embedded in the heel of the men’s dress shoe, and the wearer literally clicks his heels to turn on the satellite tracking. On the toe cap of one shoe are a series of LEDs in a line while a ring of LEDs decorates the other; the blinking lights are respectively indicators of distance and direction. Commissioned by the Global Footprint Project in Northamptonshire, the hub of shoemaking, Wilcox’s GPS Shoes brings innovation and technology to the respectable old craft. And, the shoes also bear a final acknowledgment of Miss Dorothy Gale’s iconic style and sass: red laces.
