These ornate “Steampunk” heels are adorned with lace and embellished with rhinestones on all sides. The edge of the shoes are also lined with smoked glass beads and vintage charms, which give the shoes a gothic vibe, in my opinion.

The coolest thing about these heels (and the reason they’re here on Technabob in the first place) are the LED lights. I mean, they aren’t the first pair of footwear that light up, but they’re the first heels I’ve seen that do in a long, long time.

They’re also pretty much the only ones I know that come with a remote so you can set the color of the LED lights and decide how fast you want them to fade or light up. I can just see someone wearing these heels now while getting down on the dance floor…

Anyway, they’re being made and sold by The Ratchet and Cog on Etsy for $180(USD) a pair. Any takers?

Well, you are obviously not “hip”, as the kids say these days, since you were unaware that vans are no longer ugly cars – they are things that you put on your feet. The Super Mario Brothers Custom Vans feature both Mario and Luigi – one on each shoe. Despite the fact that Kivadeno may have forgotten to draw Luigi’s chin (maybe he left it at home) the designs are pretty awesome.

On the back of the shoes, you have a couple of options. You can get the red and green mushrooms, or you can get two generic Yoshi eggs. You can go with this, or you can go with that. *Cue shuffling hamsters* Obviously, you want to go with the ‘shrooms on this one. Unfortunately, since these shoes are hand-painted, and Kivadeno put a lot of effort into making them, you’re going to have to fork over $90(USD) for them. Geeks, get your forks ready, because there’s only one pair left, and I’m sure plenty of other people have their silverware primed and ready to fork over cash. *Stabs a $100 bill* I’M GOING ALL IN ON THIS ONE.

If you like these Mario Vans, you probably want to check out the Mario Question Block Lamp and the Ye Olde Mario World Map. If you’re interested in purchasing the Super Mario Bros. Custom Vans, hop on over to Kivadeno’s Etsy page and take a closer look at what he’s offering.

Contributor Jack Kieffer owns Cool Gizmo Toys, a blog that rants about random geeky products.

Just fold the two halves of the Radler Trail Camp shoe together, and pull the zipper. That’s it. Now you have a compact pair of shoes that store easily. They come in your choice of red or black for $65(USD) from Timberland (the orange ones are on sale for $50 now.)

As long as they are comfortable, these are a great design and well worth the price.

[via redferret]

These ridiculous cases look to me like the world’s most uncomfortable flip-flops, complete with that stupid strap that gets stuck between your toes. I hate that feeling. Of course, at the size of an iPhone 4, you’d have to have really small feet to fit them into these anyhow. And then you’d need to buy a second iPhone too. Oh yeah, then there’s the part where you step down and are now walking on two non-functional planks of broken glass under your feet. That said, you won’t actually wear the flip-flop case on your feet. Though I can’t imagine that toe strap would be comfortable in your pocket either.

If you’re a true beach bum (with an iPhone 4), then you can order up one of these flip-flop cases from Trait-Tech for just $1.99 (USD) each. They ship direct from China, so I imagine you’ll spend more on shipping than on the case itself.

A guy in Malaysia, simply going by the screen name of “S02″ decided to try and put together a pair on the cheap, and I have to say he did a pretty admirable job. Now he had a little help from a guy who sells McFly replica blanks over on eBay for just $200, but those are just the basic shoe form. There’s a ton of additional work required to make them look like the ones Marty McFly donned in Back to the Future II.

S02 started out with a pair of the McFly blanks, then added to them a total of 32 LEDs, with 8 each in red, yellow, green and blue. There’s also a small electroluminescent panel behind the NIKE logo. He managed to carefully run all of the wiring inside of the shoes, and concealed a 9V battery under the insole of each shoe to provide power for the lights.

He also applied PVC details to add the NIKE Swoosh and logos on the sides and back.

About the only thing he didn’t manage to do is build in the elusive Power Laces – but not even Nike has done that yet. Maybe if S02 got together with Blake Bevin, they’d be able to work something out.

If you’re interested in trying this out for yourself, head on over to the RPF for more details on the build, and you can order a pair of Markpoon’s McFly sneaker blanks on eBay to get you started. Just keep in mind that those are only available in US size 9, so if you wear a different shoe size, you’re SOL. While you’re over there, grab a copy of Grays Sports Almanac to complete the look.

Felix is also very willing to accommodate custom requests – “any design, any colour, any size, any shoe!” is his tagline. I don’t want to take away the spotlight from the awesome Mario slip ons, but I just had to share some of Felix’ other products. The yellow and green ones are original designs, while the bleepin’ beautiful R2-D2 shoes, the hard, good, fast and strong Daft Punk shoes, the fully awesome Fullmetal Alchemist shoes and the algebraic Adventure Time shoes are custom orders.

You can order the Mario slip-ons from Felix’ Etsy shop for about $80 (USD). Don’t be fooled by the price; even if they’re cheaper than the Mario Chucks, these are way rarer because Felix only made this one pair. Visit his Facebook page for more of his products.

For his Anrealage fashion line, Japanese designer Kunihiko Morinaga took inspiration from the squared-off pixel block to create his F/W 2011 collection, which includes shoes with pixel heels, pixelated prints on on jackets, sweaters and slacks.

But my favorite part of the collection isn’t the clothing. It’s the pixel furniture, which includes a pair of awesome blocky armchairs, a matching café table, a pixel-patterned Oriental rug, and some awesome pixel light bulb fixtures.

I would live in a house filled with this stuff if I could. But I can’t. So for now, the only way to experience this is to head to the Anrealage showroom in Harajuku, Tokyo.

[KoiKoiKoi via Fancy]

Now all we need to do is figure out how to make Marty’s hoverboard.

[via Brothers Brick via Gizmodo]

This teaser video was released on YouTube by DocEmmettBrown88 and in it you can see Marty’s closet filled up to the brim with Air Mags.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

For one, the blinking lights are easy as pie, thanks to LED technology, but I don’t know what else these shoes will actually do. Are they the ultimate sneakers in geek nerdom, or simply a novelty item. I hope that Nike won’t price them too high. We’ll see what’s up when they are released.

[Nice Kicks via Engadget]

Researchers Tom Krupkin and J. Ashley Taylor at UW-Madison have been working on this technology and it looks like it will be able to deliver 10 to 20W of power. This is a lot more than the electricity created by similar attempts with piezoelectrics. The process is called reverse electrowetting and includes liquid metal that is stored in pouches of the heel and sole of the shoe. As you walk, you will pump nano-sized droplets of the metal through tiny channels, creating electricity. The electricity is stored in a battery at the center of the shoe.

To access the shoe power for your gadgets, you just plug in an USB cable. They’re hoping the tech will be ready for the market in a few years and will cost about the same as the shoe you’ll end up buying, so it’s not that much more expensive.

[UW Madison via DVice]

One of the good things about these speakers is that they are somewhat portable, meaning that they don’t need to be plugged into a power socket. They get their power directly from your laptop’s USB port. They come in a bunch of different colors, including black, red, and pink. Obviously, their shape kind of negates their portability – and it’s not like you can wear them either.

The cheapest we’ve found the Gimme Tunes speakers is at Perpetual Kid for $29.99 (USD). They launched for about $40 last year at CES, but have come down in price at some places, just like last season’s shoes.

[via Thaeger]

Look at the awesome box art! I’d buy the shoes just for the box. Actually no, I won’t.

What are you waiting for? Move it! Hold B and jump to JBox to pre-order; you’ll need $130 gold coins (USD) for a pair. As of this writing only the white and black Mario patterns are available; no word if JBox will snag the more colorful first stage and last stage models as well.

[via Fashionably Geek]

A total of four designs are being released. The first two are set to launch later on in July, while the second set will be dropping in to store by August of this year. The latter designs are what you see in the photos in this post right now.

The designs being featured on the sneakers are classic scenes that anyone who has played the Super Mario Bros. video games will be able to recognize. The first of the second batch of released designs features Mario hopping over Goombas (those orange mouthless guys with the mean eyes).

The second design has a darker theme and features Mario battling it out with Bowser. Look at the inner part of each sneaker and you’ll see Mario reunited with his Princess.

The bad news is that these sneakers will only be made available in Japan. It might be a good idea to start contacting people you know from there or contact shops that have purchasing services if you want a pair.

[via Joystiq via Oh Gizmo!]

Valid concerns, I guess, but still. It would have been cool. If you were a frustrated child yourself, then you might want to get yourself a pair of these trampoline shoes, called a tad inappropriately the TRAMP-It Trampoline Shoes.

These shoes seem like a novel idea, but of course, they aren’t very smart if you think of it on the practical side (and they’re not going to be kind to your wallet, either.) But they are a real space saver, considering that you don’t really need to setup a huge trampoline when you already have one right under your soles, literally.

They’re also adjustable based on what you want to do with them (ie. run, walk, or jump), so at least you will be able to use them as regular sneakers, too.

Live a little and jump a little higher with TRAMP-Its.  They’re currently available for pre-order from Firebox, with prices ranging from £99.99 (~$163 USD) to £119.99 (~$197), depending on your size.

[via Coolest Gadgets]

Like the earlier model, these were created by sneaker artist Nashmoney, but this time in collabo with hip-hop artist MF Doom, the Sneaker Speakers Doomsday Edition not only have actual sneakers as part of them, they’re gigantic. I’m talking Yao Ming size feet. PUMA ponied up the world’s largest pair of Suedes in order to form the foundation for these crazy things. These massive speaker shoes are loaded with LED disco lights, and the base station offers lighting controls, inputs, and an LCD screen that claims to have “barometric pressure readouts,” which I don’t quite get. But heck, we’re talking about shoes with speakers in them, so none of it makes all that much sense.

You can see a bit more of the speakers in action, along with a brief interview with Nash Money in the video clip below:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Check out the full story of the giant Sneaker Speakers over at Sneaker Freaker (just try and say that 10 times fast), and see how they were built here.

The Sneaker Speakers were made by high-end sneaker customizer Nashmoney for the recent Inspired Ingenuity creative competition for Havana Club.

They’re made from a pair of Nike Air Force 1 sneakers, with a full-range and tweeter loaded into each shoe, along with volume controls, an amplifier and controls built into the right shoe (er, left speaker.) There’s no word on how good these things actually sound, but I’m reasonably certain you can’t run in them anymore.

[via Art & Sole]

I’m not sure from whence these particular slippers came, but they’re pretty damned funny. The good news is that with a little sleuthing, I did find a similar pair imported from Thailand available here for $29 (with free worldwide shipping) if you want to try some on your own achy tootsies.

I guess you could always try to make your own by strapping actual keyboards to your feet, but for some reason I don’t think that would be quite as comfy.

[FYLaughters via 9GAG]

I’m not saying that these shoes are ugly, just that the supposed crossover – the very reason why these shoes are rare – reeks of laziness. No PlayStation color scheme or graphics. Just one square patch of the classic PS Logo, which even looks out of place if you ask me.

But based on rarity alone, these are a must-have for Air Force 1 collectors or PlayStation devotees. According to the seller, these shoes never went on sale; they were released in 2006 but were given only to “Nike/Sony Friends & Family”. Only 150 pairs exist – for two big corporations, Nike and Sony sure have a small social circle. If you’re interested, be quick and head to eBay. Bidding is already up to $780 (USD) and rising.

[via GameSniped]

The Imperial Guard kicks look awesome as well. Here are some more pictures:

If Nike is smart they’ll come up with a Star Trek collection to compete. Check out Kidulty for more pictures.

[via Hypebeast]

These adidas concept shoes were designed by Gerry Mckay. Personally, I wouldn’t buy these. There are so many better looking designs for adidas sneakers out there. Plus, we don’t need to promote Twitter and Facebook any more than they already are, do we?

Although it would be funny if these shoes would tweet or post Facebook updates as well while they are being used. It’s not hard to fathom, thanks to Nike + iPod, this could be possible at some point, if they were tethered to your smartphone.

[BuzzFeed via Geekologie]