US Footwear Startup Backed By Reebok Co-Founder To Design Shoes In Space

A US footwear company, backed by Reebok co-founder Joe Foster, is planning to design a shoe in space by mid to late 2026 as part of a mission to make artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain less expensive and more eco-friendly than it is on Earth.

Florida-based footwear company Syntilay, whose name is based on the word "scintillate", is collaborating with OrbitsEdge, a company that supports AI and blockchain applications, and Copernic Space, which offers digital marketplaces for space assets, to produce the shoe design. The mission is expected to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in early 2026

"Syntilay is announcing an unprecedented mission to design shoes in space! We will be deploying an AI agent on a computer in a satellite that will generate the first shoe design outside of Earth in human history," the company stated.

"The first shoes made in space are planned to release in late Q2 2026 for $200! Which will be 3D printed with our preferred production partner Zellerfeld," it added.

Syntilay will use AI agents on the satellite to produce the first image of a shoe design from space. If the computer on the satellite doesn't have enough processing power, the company will produce a 2D image. As per Syntilay founder and CEO Ben Weiss, the goal is to have space-designed shoes ready to sell by September 2026 at the latest.

"The purpose of this is to push the boundaries of what's possible," Mr Weiss was quoted as saying by Space.com.

"We've heard about making new materials in space and stuff like that, but the average consumer hasn't really benefited from a lot of these innovations yet. We can, I think, incentivise and increase the interest in this category and make it more practical for people, which is something that I think has been missing."

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Meanwhile, Mr Foster said the project might help Syntilay carve out a bigger niche for itself in a competitive market.

"It's, 'How do we find a different way in?' and it was the same when we started Reebok. We were very small. We had to look for what we call white space," said Mr Foster.

"White space was somewhere where we could make a difference, where we could be part of it, as against just chasing the big boys. And so this is looking for white space that is actually in space. So what better space can you get?"