This is my son Fallon’s shoe, a Skecher’s Hot Lights Chopper, U.S. size 12. The toe, filled with LED lights, is glowing in the picture. It has been blinking at me from across the room all evening now. It reminds me of the heart of a shark I once saw beating on a dock in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, hours after it had been cut from the fish. Unlike that shark, Fallon’s shoe isn’t dead, but it is getting close, the flashes coming further and further apart.
Light-up shoes are a fact of life for American parents. Fallon, who is four, is in the golden age of light-up shoes and he loves them. But I gave little thought, until tonight, to how such flashing shoes work. Kids ask, of course, so I always gave them my best guess. Strontium-90 energy packs were out of the question since the 1950s, I explained, so the only mechanism that made sense to me was a piezoelectric crystal generating a small voltage with every step.
But this single Skecher, mocking me from across the room, showed I was wrong.
My theory of shoe operation required walking to generate power to light the lights, yet here was a sneaker lighting-up all by itself for hours and hours.
A little research on the Internet and I had it and you can too if you are willing to buy 5000 pieces at a time — the LED light controller and battery from a child’s light-up shoe (below). I guess piezoelectric crystals cost more and batteries cost less than I thought.
And for the geekier parents reading this, yes, that’s a mercury cell in your kid’s shoes. Two of them, actually.
Bob,
Should these “puppies” be disposed of at a toxic materials recycling center or can they be placed in the regular trash?
Hmm they look like an environmental failure right there. Tell your child they don’t need the blinking lights, they are bad for the environment. With societies like ours build on waste something has to give.
Don’t forget to replace your watch with a wind-up or a self-wind like we used in the 60’s.
Watch? You mean those things we used before phones?
still have mine.
If it fills with water 10 fathoms down it can be dried and fixed
Same as the 80 year hand drills of various capacities. Still work and no flat batteries. Almost as fast as power tools if the bits are kept sharp.
If another Carrington event occurs, at least I will know what time the lights went out.
I’m looking forward to the day when I can buy a decent and small watch phone in the US. (Not those wrist-bricks from China.)
Yes, shoes containing mercury should be considered as toxic waste, whether as part of the battery or as part of the internal switches causing the shoes to light up. I’d try taking them to a place that accepts CFL bulbs for recycling.
I presume “mercury cell” refers to the battery, though early light-up shoes used mercury switches. The state of Minnesota banned those shoes back in 1994, but I’m not sure if the law considered the batteries.
It used to be common for batteries to contain significant amounts of mercury, but the levels are much lower now. I remember there were battery recycling programs for several years, but they seem to have faded away now that most batteries are safe for disposal in household trash.
I will bet dollars to doughnuts those are alkaline coin cells. look the size of 2032s. the Chinese knock ’em out for a few cents each, and we buy ’em for our car fobs for $3.
if they were mercury, they couldn’t knock ’em out for a few cents each.
I’ve always thought they should make adult shoes like this, too. It would certainly give people something to smile about in the office.
Flashing LED lights were popular in adult shoes too about a decade ago.
I read about one prison escapee in the News of the Weird (Least Competent Crooks) about that time who was running through the woods late at night while being chased by prison security guards. The LED lights flashing in the escapee’s shoes simplified the pursuit.
Surely not mercury. Mercury cells are effectively banned in Europe and probably in most US states too.
Most of the button cells I see these days are standard alkaline cells. The pricier ones for watches and stuff use silver.
Mind you swallowing one wouldn’t do a kid any good in any case.
Alas, if you do a search on “blinking shoes” or “LED shoes” and “mercury cells” you’ll find that this is a very real problem. The shoes are made in China with the wrong cells sometimes installed and enforcement is very difficult given that they are encased in rubber and hard to inspect. Ingestion isn’t much of a problem simply because the shoes don’t degrade in landfills and my kids have certainly never been able to break one open.
Having said that, though, my son Cole one time DID swallow a button cell. We took him to the ER and there it was, right on the X-ray. “What were you doing swallowing batteries?” the ER doc asked my then four year-old. “I wasn’t swallowing batteries,” replied Cole. “It was just in my mouth and slurped on down all by itself.”
Though we saw it on the X-ray and poked around in the toilet for days, we never did find that battery, thanks for asking.
There was controversy years ago about shoes containing mercury *switches* to detect movement, but not mercury cells. I am highly skeptical that shoes of current manufacture contain mercury of any sort beyond the trivial amount found in alkaline cells. You certainly can’t buy mercury cells for cameras any more (their once primary use) and there are web sites that discuss this at some length, along with attempts to substitute current technology in otherwise orphaned units.
Wikipedia claims that a US federal law enacted in 1996 effectively bans all use of mercury cells. What incentive would even the most evil Chinese shoe manufacturer have to include a more expensive power source in kids shoes, when they can use much cheaper and current lithium or alkaline cells? The application has no requirement for steady output voltage over a long time; one could even argue that making the lights fade roughly in time with the tread life is good for business.
K2 FOUR skis have LEDs in them, and piezoelectric crystals. The LEDs will light as you go over bumps and the skis flex.
Any educated guesses on how the quantity compares to the amount of mercury in a CFL light bulb? I’m just curious and yes I realize that using less electricity to run a CFL bulb probably lowers total environmental mercury emissions from coal power etc.
Worrying. And most hearing aid batteries are mercury cells too. Odd for such an intimate item.
I suppose, as you point out, it might be a cost reason. Silver cells would surely give better life. However, surely crystal flexing would make much more sense for shoes.
I now look at my own kids flashing shoes with concern and burgeoning distrust.
I guess you don’t wear earing aids. I don’t wear hearing aids, either, but my beloved wife does.
Hearing aid batteries haven’t contained mercury for years — they use a zinc and air system, and these batteries are safe to dispose of (well, as safe as any other man-made combination of materials are safe to dispose of) in landfills.
Sadly, I suspect that many parents will accept mercury batteries in trivial fashion items for their spoilt progeny, but get hysterical about the smaller quantities in overall beneficial items such as low energy light bulbs. Stupid humans!
I’ve taken a bunch of my son’s old shoes apart, and harvested the LED’s and modules out of said… He loves to include them as flashing lights in the cardboard cars, trucks, and flying spaceships we build…
Just don’t cut your hand off with the utility knife, when cutting the modules out of the rubber shoes…
…and buy LED lights and not the 40% power factor killing mercury CFL lamps…
Dan
So you’re the one guy with data as to whether this story is meaningful, but you’re going to just taunt us?
Were the batteries in the harvested modules normal alkaline, mercury, or what?
I thought most hearing aid batteries run on the newer iron / air batteries.
I bought some solar powered lights last year for our front entrance and patio. I took one of them apart. Inside I found a NiCd battery! Cadmium! Another nasty material. I was expecting a capacitor or a NiMH battery.
This is my son Fallon’s s shoe … U.S. size 12…. Fallon, who is four,….
Your four year old wears a size 12 shoe? Either there’s a children’s sizing I don’t know about, or you sired a giant.
Bob, you stud!
Mrs. Cringely testifies that I AM a stud (to have a four year-old at 58, something must be going right) but a size 12 shoe is just about right for most four year-old boys. Infant sizes top out at 13 then boy and adult sizes start over at size 1 and up. A boys size 3 is the equivalent t o a women’s size 5, which Mrs. Cringely learned when our six year-old’s feet got to be bigger than hers.
While not giants, our kids ARE on the large size. Fallon is the smallest (90th percentile), followed by Channing (95th), and Cole, who is literally off the chart at six years old and four feet six inches tall. He’s our nerdiest, too, which makes for an especially geeky combo.
How does Mrs Cringely walk on size 5 feet? That is an awfully small footprint to balance a mother of 3 boys.
Blinking shoes. HAH! My ex-wife bought my son a shirt that you can play guitar on. His friend has a shirt that you can play drums on. They are waiting on the bass guitar shirt and they will have a t-shirt power trio. I shit you not. God help us all.
“The Spirit of Radio”, as played on stylish crew necks! Love it!
Let’s hope bullies don’t get the idea of playing “Toad” on your son’s friend.
What pray tell is a 4 year old doing wearing size 12 shoes?
The 2032 clock batteries used on computer motherboards are lithium, and that makes it likely that all 2032’s are lithium.
From this perspective, it’s actually quite apparent why their economy has gone through 4 recessions in the last 20 years, and will continue to slide after the reconstruction blip. The aging population is the cause, not for the reason of an “aging-workforce” but “stubborn idealism” that is threatened like a guillotine on the younger workforce.
We’re in a globalized economy, and it takes 10,000 hours of instruction and practice to be world class at anything. I’m not saying you can’t make home schooling work, but it’s a lot of work – probably more than a full time job. If you’re also a writer, or doing housework, then you may not have the time to make it work. Then the kids get a few hours (or less) classroom a day, and the rest of the time they are out playing on the street. Nothing wrong with that pe se, but it’s a competitive world.
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I am surprised that you found a mercury switch…China? I, of course, sliced into my daughters shoes and found a simple bouncy spring tah made contact to trigger the LED driver.
It is interesting but no good for environment if the battery is necessary for the light-up shoes.
Although we developed our LED Flashing Flip Flops & Shoes with our invention patent pending “Actuator” without requiring battery, unfortunately we found the investment of molding & production facilities requiring huge fund, therefore we dropped it and turned to development Movable Power Sources (for charging IPad and Smartphone) and LED Warning Belt For Joggers (used in the night or early morning for safety reason). We will start mass production in 2015 for the above 2 items.
You are welcome to browse the following short video showing the electricity-generating capability of the function sample of LED Flashing Shoes:
https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=520777414607712&saved
Our LED Flashing Shoes can be built with micro generator and our invention patent pending components of actuator, say, “Micro Generator & Actuator Module” which enables our LED Flashing Shoes no need battery but with LED flashing function.
With the capability of electricity generating, We will develop & manufacture Heating Shoes/Boots (designed for warming our feet in cold winter season in north China and Russia, without battery) and Movable Power Source (designed for IPad, smart phones and movable phones, without battery) in Taiwan in 2015.
Let’s think some ways to generate green power to love our earth.