After Samsung Galaxy X could the Galaxy S10 launch event feature one more thing?

Samsung 'SmartShoes' spotted in patent filing

Samsung Galaxy Sport smart shoes
Duncan Bell
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It looks so far like on February 20 the Samsung Galaxy S10 smartphone, alongside the Samsung Galaxy X folding phone and (maybe) the Samsung Galaxy Watch Sport will all be partying together at Samsung's Unpacked events in London and San Francisco.

However, that might not be the end of the matter. There could be Bixby 2.0 – that would be exciting. Or there could be… Samsung Galaxy Sneakers. Smart running shoes embedded with sensors and transmitters, a bit like Puma's RS-Computer shoes, but less deliciously retro.

You may recall Samsung already developed the SmartSuit for the Dutch team at the 2018 Winter Olympics, getting a foot in the door of the booming, non-wrist-based fitness wearables market. This suggests that the sneakers might be called SmartShoes or, if aimed more at a consumer audience, perhaps Samsung Galaxy SmartShoes.

We're already seeing an increasing number of gizmos in this area, including Stryd and Lumo, which attach to your body or shoes or, in the case of Arion Insoles, go inside your shoes. They then use an array of sensors to monitor your running style, speed, power and more.

Recently, however, LetsGoDigital spied a patent for not one but two Samsung Galaxy smart shoes: Model A and Model B. Those are working names, we suspect.

Samsung Galaxy Smart Shoe

This version seems a little half thought through, as the tab you use to pull the smart sneakers on is also, somehow, the shoes' 'brain'

(Image credit: LetsGoDigital)

As you can see, Model A is made of a Nike Flyknit-style fabric and seems to feature some kind of sensor array that 'plugs in' to the loop you use to pull the shoes on, then sits at the heel. 

That strikes us as a rather odd idea, so perhaps Model B is a more likely vision of what the Galaxy Shoes will look like. It's also weirdly similar to the aforementioned Puma RS-Computer, which originally came out in the 1980s… 

Samsung Galaxy Smart Shoe

This version, with a snap-shut compartment on the heel, seems a more plausible 'look' for the Galaxy Sport Shoes

(Image credit: LetsGoDigital)

Either way, the approach Samsung is taking seems to be to make the shoes' brain removable – so it can be moved to a new pair of Samsung Galaxy Sneakers when the current pair wears out. 

If, like the Olympic Smart Suit, this is something aimed at pro athletes, the brain – in conjunction with sensors and electronics woven into the fabric and sole of the shoes – will likely track more technical running stats such as cadence, impact force and vertical oscillation, as well as the usual things like distance and speed.

If they're aimed primarily at Samsung's usual consumer mass-market we'd expect only the simpler data to be collected – speed, average speed, distance, steps taken and so on. 

Perhaps there might be GPS as well, and your shoes will vibrate to tell you to turn left or right, as you walk or jog along a new route. That's the great thing about tech that hasn't come out yet; you can conjecture all day, and nobody can prove you're wrong.

Perhaps the two models will feature different levels of tech integration – the Model A has more of a pure, minimalist running shoe look, while Model B has more fashion elements.

It is likely the shoes will work with Samsung's Galaxy Watch for easy viewing of rich, running- and fitness-related data on the go.

Samsung did not, as far as we could see, have any smart shoes at CES 2019, but they could still make an appearance on February 20, or the following week at Europe's top mobile tech show, MWC in beautiful Barcelona.

Duncan Bell
Duncan Bell

Duncan is the former lifestyle editor of T3 and has been writing about tech for almost 15 years. He has covered everything from smartphones to headphones, TV to AC and air fryers to the movies of James Bond and obscure anime. His current brief is everything to do with the home and kitchen, which is good because he is an excellent cook, if he says so himself. He also covers cycling and ebikes – like over-using italics, this is another passion of his. In his long and varied lifestyle-tech career he is one of the few people to have been a fitness editor despite being unfit and a cars editor for not one but two websites, despite being unable to drive. He also has about 400 vacuum cleaners, and is possibly the UK's leading expert on cordless vacuum cleaners, despite being decidedly messy. A cricket fan for over 30 years, he also recently become T3's cricket editor, writing about how to stream obscure T20 tournaments, and turning out some typically no-nonsense opinions on the world's top teams and players.

Before T3, Duncan was a music and film reviewer, worked for a magazine about gambling that employed a surprisingly large number of convicted criminals, and then a magazine called Bizarre that was essentially like a cross between Reddit and DeviantArt, before the invention of the internet. There was also a lengthy period where he essentially wrote all of T3 magazine every month for about 3 years. 

A broadcaster, raconteur and public speaker, Duncan used to be on telly loads, but an unfortunate incident put a stop to that, so he now largely contents himself with telling people, "I used to be on the TV, you know."

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