In an effort to clear up the mass of discarded footwear by the front door of your home, you may invest in a shoe rack. A tidier alternative to both of these solutions is Shoeblox, which stores shoes on the wall, making a feature of them in the process.
The Shoeblox frees up floor-space by making use of wall real estate that might otherwise simply be bare, keeping shoes out of the way and minimizing their potential as a tripping hazard. Designer Randy McNabb explains that the idea came about through necessity when living in a small apartment.
"Our apartment had many things but floor space was not one of them and I was challenged to find a way to store the many shoes we would use over a short period of time," McNabb tells Gizmag. "We tried storage shelves and storage bags but they all seemed ungainly and lacked the aesthetic values we sought."
McNabb developed his idea over the course of three years and his resulting Shoeblox design displays shoes in an interesting, if unusual, way. This is great for those who take pride in their footwear and have nice-looking pairs to show off, but perhaps less of an attractive proposition if your smelly old trainers are falling apart.
The Shoeblox themselves consist of a wall-mounted panel and movable brackets that stick to the panel. The panels have mounting holes that allows them to be hung in a portrait or landscape orientation and have been kept lightweight enough to be hung using 3M Picture Hanging Strips. Once the panels are installed, two brackets hold each shoe in place, with the heel placed in the bottom bracket and the top bracket pulled tight to the toe of the shoe to secure it.
The metal panels are available in two sizes of either 15 x 14 in (38 x 36 cm) or the larger 18 x 14 in (46 x 36 cm). The accompanying brackets are made primarily of Canadian Cedar and have magnetic elements that allow them to stick to the panels.
A Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for the Shoeblox is ongoing. At the time of writing, pledges start at CA$55 (US$43). Assuming all goes to plan with the campaign and roll-out, shipping is expected from September.
The video below is the Kickstarter pitch for Shoeblox.
Sources: Shoeblox, Kickstarter
