While most of us don’t think twice about putting on shoes made of cow skin and it isn’t unusual to spot the hide of an alligator or even snake adorning someone’s feet, the idea of custom growing an animal for a pair of high-priced tennis shoes is idea straight off the shelves of Dr. Frankenstein’s boutique.
Rayfish Footwear is offering to grow patterned stingrays, the skin of which is then made into truly customized sneakers for the person with plenty of cash to spare ($1800 a pop) and a desperate need to stand out in a sneakered crowd.
According to the head of the company, Dr. Raymond Ong:
“We cannot breed any desirable shape or logo on the fishes, as our patterning process works by recording and recombining DNA of existing animals…. Squares are for instance not possible, as the expression of the DNA on the skin doesn’t allow it,” Dr. Ong explains. “Also, the patterns that grow on the actual fish sometimes slightly differ from what you see in the design tool. Although it is almost perfect, we are still developing the mapping between the design tool and the DNA encoding further.”
Sounds a bit fishy to us, but it certainly would give a maudlin twist to the phrase “organic pattern.”
Full story at Fast Co Design via Technabob.
Fashion to die for.
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