The nature of shoes is such that their construction is actually quite complex: soles, upper, insoles and who knows what else mean that even the simplest pair have many component parts. But Israeli designer Lou Moria wants to change that, by making cheap shoes for the developing world out of a single piece of plastic.
His new plastic slippers, shown above, can be produced quickly and cheaply. How? Well, he takes a single sheet of rubbery plastic, then uses vacuum-forming technology to turn it into a shoe. Then, any excess material is trimmed away, the top cut off so that a foot can fit in the insta-shoe. You can see the process in action below. Moria explained to Dezeen:
"In this model I tried to think about shoe manufacture and marketing in a different way. This shoe may not last long – but so is the cheap one we can find in the market today – but it's being made in a few seconds from one material and technology and can easily be recycled as one piece... The shoe is also its own packaging and by opening it the user prepares it for use."
For now it remains a concept, but it's easy to imagine this kind of footwear assuming a similar role to Toms. In fact, if you think about they're probably better as cheap and cheerful shoes go; not least because they're actually waterproof instead of being made from canvas. We just hope they do make it onto the world's feet. [Dezeen]