The first shoe experience designed for the planet and engineered for the way people move.

NEW YORK, May 11, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Innovative footwear brand Baliston^® launches BALISTON BY STARCK, its debut collection of tech-augmented, 100% recyclable, extremely comfortable footwear created in collaboration with world-renowned creator Philippe Starck.

Baliston shoes are designed with an embedded proprietary sensor module which analyzes the way the wearer moves to provide personalized insights and recommendations that increase understanding of their body to reduce fatigue, back pain, and injury risk. Additionally, Baliston shoes analyze user’s walking DNA and provide fitted insoles that uplift their extreme comfort to a personalized experience. A one size fits one.

The shoes are made from just five biobased recyclable materials and designed to monitor the deterioration of their own cushioning allowing every shoe produced by the company to be collected at the end of its life and to be 100% recycled. The goal is to ensure that Baliston shoes will not be a part of the 25 billion pairs produced every year and scrapped somewhere polluting the planet.

The brand is taking sustainability to another level where the manufacturers become responsible for what they produce – mapping the future of tech-integrated fashion. This inaugural collection of BALISTON BY STARCK will be limited to an exclusive 5,000 members.

YOUR FEET KNOW MORE THAN YOU THINK

Today, walking is often considered our “sixth vital sign,” and yet sedentary lifestyle and mobility disorders are on the rise. Until now, our feet have been an untapped source of information about our health. BALISTON BY STARCK changes that with a tech-augmented shoe, the first to capture biometric information straight from the wearer’s feet and offer an evolutive ecosystem that transforms footwear into a quality-of-life catalyst.

Baliston’s proprietary sensor modules embedded within the tech-augmented shoes measure biomechanical data on the quality of posture and walk (symmetry, pronation, supination, propulsion, heel impact force) and on the intensity of the physical activity (speed, number of steps). The modules’ A.I. then provide insights into the wearer’s walking DNA, going well beyond what any wearable can achieve. In the Baliston Connect app, this information is transformed into a suite of personalized analysis and recommendations, helping the wearer understand their body, how it moves, and the implications. Baliston also uses this advanced gait-analysis technology to provide a fitted insole designed to support how the wearer walks, enabling them to experience ultimate personalized support.

AUGMENT THE MINIMUM

The BALISTON BY STARCK collection was created around the idea that being sustainable is the bare minimum; a reduction mindset is required from the design phase. Partnering with Philippe Starck was a meeting of like minds, and an exercise in minimum design. The result: a collection that is a unique and unisex model available in 5 colors with each shoe made of just five 100% recyclable bio-based materials, such as castor bean yarn, organic cotton, recycled plastic, sugarcane green EVA, and non-slip rubber.

“This is not a shoe for five months or one year, it is a shoe for life. When you design a shoe for life, you cannot be trendy, we cannot put all our life in the garbage every 6 months. The BALISTON BY STARCK shoes are the minimum of design for the maximum of technology,” explains Philippe Starck.

DESIGNED FOR THE PLANET

“We’re entering a new era of footwear. But we can’t talk about a ‘new era’ without being truly future-looking. There are more than 25 billion pairs of shoes sold each year, and most end as landfill waste.

“While some of the footwear manufacturing is admirably concentrated on reducing the carbon footprint of a shoe during the production process, we are taking the sustainability into another level by detecting the wear and tear, collecting every single pair that we produce and taking the responsibility to recycle it.  Baliston shoes will not end its life polluting the planet for centuries.”

Each shoe will be sent by the user back to Baliston, which will take care of the entire process of recycling.

“We believe that a brand’s responsibility should be to take care of what they produce. Imagine if all the brands do that, we will have much less trash polluting the planet,” explains Karim Oumnia, Founder of Baliston.

FOOTWEAR EXPERIENCE

Baliston footwear will be sold as an annual subscription service, for $249.99.

The benefits once the members are subscribed:

1. A new pair of tech-augmented shoes
2. Access to Baliston Connect app for health insights and recommendations.
3. Replacement and recycling of worn-out shoes when it’s time
4. A free pair of fitted comfort insoles that will support the user’s unique way of walking and it’s replacement when it’s time.

What’s more: Baliston shoes also monitor the deterioration of their own cushioning, and members receive replacement shoes and recycling of their old shoes at no additional charge, for as long as they’re a member. Over time, the Baliston sensor modules and Baliston Connect receive software updates to incorporate new features and metrics, just like other cutting-edge smart devices.

LIMITED RELEASE

BALISTON BY STARCK is launching an inaugural collection of only 5,000 pairs of shoes. The first 5,000 subscribers will be part of an exclusive class of members that will always maintain their status as one of the first owners of this timeless design. This distinguished status grants members exclusive benefits that will be carried on and celebrated throughout the history of Baliston.

ABOUT BALISTON
Baliston is an innovative, direct-to-consumer (DTC) startup founded by footwear, tech, and ecommerce professionals experienced in successfully bringing products to life. Baliston is based in California with an international team spanning France, Luxembourg, and the U.S.

Baliston aims to transform shoes from products that only cover the foot and give a nice look, to a daily life companion that provides valuable insights and recommendations to their users.

The company also aims to reduce the impact of the footwear industry on the planet, using positive technology and a circular business model to achieve it.

www.baliston.com / Facebook @BalistonFootwear / Instagram @BalistonFootwear

ABOUT PHILIPPE STARCK

Philippe Starck, world famous creator with multifaceted inventiveness, is always focused on the essential, his vision: that creation, whatever form it takes, must improve the lives of as many people as possible. This philosophy has made him one of the pioneers and central figures of the concept of “democratic design”.

By employing his prolific work across all domains, from everyday products (furniture, a citrus squeezer, electric bikes, an individual wind turbine), to architecture (hotels, restaurants that aspire to be stimulating places) and naval and spatial engineering (mega yachts, habitation module for private space tourism), he continually pushes the boundaries and requirements of design, becoming one of the most visionary and renowned creators of the international contemporary scene.

www.starck.com / Facebook @StarckOfficial / Instagram @Starck 

SOURCE Baliston