Sneakers rethought to handle the demands of kids’ activity and growth

PLAE is a startup that is redesigning sneakers for children, making them more flexible to cater for their continuing development.

There have been plenty of services in the past that help parents to design their babies’ shoes or even allow kids to customize their own. However, PLAE is a startup that is redesigning sneakers for children, making them more flexible to cater for their continuing development.

In their early stages, kids’ feet aren’t yet tough enough to support their weight. However, even when they’ve learned to walk the feet are still developing and require greater support and flexibility than typical child’s shoes provide. Rather than simply downsize adult designs to fit kids, PLAE has created a sneaker that fits more comfortably to the shape of each individual foot and can withstand the stresses of children’s play. Although the products take cues from orthopedic shoe design, PLAE shoes are also made to appeal to kids, with options such as customizable velcro straps and a range of colors and styles. The video below explains the philosophy behind the startup:

Are there other kids’ products that could be designed more specifically to cater for the challenges of a developing body?

Spotted by Smith Alan, written by Springwise