#HTE

Sneakerheads Take Note: Japanese Invention to Protect Footwear from Rain

If you’re obsessed with keeping your kicks clean, here’s the invention for you. The folks at Japanese design brand ONFAdd noticed that in inclement weather, sneakerheads perhaps caught unawares by the rain were improvising protective solutions. Here we see what look to be shopping bags and blue tape:

They thus created these rubber, roughly USD $10/pair “Rain Socks:”

The company claims they’re durable. “They have undergone processing using a natural rubber material called latex of elasticity [which is] applied to the sole part,” the company writes. “Even if you use them over and over, they will not get worn out much because the sole part is thicker.”

As the rubber stretches, these are one-size-fits-all affairs, but the designers say they work best on U.S. size 7 and up.

They’re holding a Kickstarter for these, and at press time they were at $7,821 of a $10,030 goal, with 49 days left to pledge.