Lechal: The world’s first interactive haptic footwear

Lechal is a smart footwear product, designed to give runners real-time haptic feedback, to help them navigate as well as track ther exercise routine.

Using simple foot gestures or voice commands, the wearer can use it as a navigational tool or track their activity from a fitness perspective. The footwear communicates with the user via gentle vibratory responses or haptic feedback. In addition to that, it allows users to tag favourite locations, share new routes and create group journeys. It tracks the number of steps taken, calories burnt, and distance travelled, logs your fitness activity, and charts it over time. 

The footwear was initially conceived as a solution to help the visually-impaired navigate their way, but its uses have diversified. Ducere Technologies, the innovators of Lechal, have partnered with the L.V. Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad to make this a reality. The footwear is available as an insole or a shoe, and uses Bluetooth technology to connect to the user’s smartphone via the companys app. 

Launched in 2014, it received a positive response, with over 50,000 pre-orders from across the world. The footwear will also soon be available at retailers and e-commerce websites around the world.

A pair of Lechal insoles will cost between US $100 and US $150 and the shoes will be slightly more expensive. You can pre-order a pair from the Lechal website here.