A few days ago, I saw an
interesting bicycle on the Internet. Surprisingly found that the tire
of the bike is made of running shoes!
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It's designed for getting away without a tire puncture.![]()
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However, are you comfortable riding a bike like that?
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The is no limit in inventions, you can design whatever you can imagine, instead of using running shoes to make a tire, someone is trying to use the tires to make sandals.
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What comes to your mind when you see an old, overly used car or bike tire kept in a garage or cycle repair shop? Do you think of any unique way of re-using or recycling it? Have you ever thought of carving pretty Tire Sandals out of it?
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Tire sandals are a pretty common sight at every market place in Kenya and other parts of Eastern Africa just like Jute sandals are here in India. Every other person in Kenya, especially the men and women of Samburu and Maasai tribes of Kenya can be seen sporting them wherever they go – be it to the marketplace which is usually miles away from their villages or for their daily chores which involves walking for long distances.
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But people often ask why wear old, used tires? And I say, why not?
Idea Behind These Tire Sandals
Tire is a pretty hard rubber which proves to be an excellent sole for shoes. Because of their long durability, they prove to be very useful when it comes to walking long distances without any fear of getting torn.
Originally the brain child of Ethiopian rebels who invented these back in 1935, tire sandals are popularly known as“Ten Thousand Milers” in Kenya solely because you can literally walk a thousand miles without anything happening to its sole. That is how durable these unique tire sandals are!
Maasai men wear these sandals while grazing their livestock and going to the markets for which they have to walk miles daily over very thorny and uneven terrain.
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What’s Special About These Tire Sandals?
What’s not special about these?
Besides the fact that they are so durable that a pair of tire sandals can last you for two to three years easily, they don’t even look weird. In fact they look beautiful!
Each pair of tire sandals takes only one hour to make without any costly or complicated instruments and is decorated with bright colorful bands and beads proudly adorned by the women of Africa so that it looks as sophisticated as any other pair of sandals.
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Why We need Tire Sandals as well?
Not only Kenya but I would say every country needs something like this where the people can re-cycle old tires to make things they can efficiently use in their daily lives.
Why?
Because dumping waste tires is the most difficult thing ever!
Tires are designed to not fall apart when on the road. So these are the most indestructible of all the non-biodegradable materials. You can’t break them, you can’t tear them apart.
And burning tires in open or closed spaces is definitely not an option.
India is a pretty popular place when it comes to holding violent as hell protests and shut-downs for minor inconveniences. Groups of people take on to the streets, destroying public properties with absolutely no regard for anything.
And guess what more do they do?
They burn tires as a form of aggression clearly ignoring the hazardous impact of burning tire tubes just like that.
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Some might call tire sandals primitive, but when looking at this young warrior’s feet that roam endless stretches of savannah, I see sensibility and resourcefulness.
Why let things like unused tires go to waste?
Furthermore, It is far better to put the rubber into use by making different products instead!
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Not only you are doing a favor to our Mother Earth but also getting a durable pair of chappals which you can pass on to your grandchildren because that’s how long they last! (Okay, slightly exaggerated).
Images: MUZI看世界、Max创意公元
References: 日本设计小站, https://edtimes.in
*Please note that we hope that more people can get the first-hand information. For cited images and articles that we have the footnote of the sources at the bottom, the copyright belongs to the original writer, and we've done our best to proofread the content.
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