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Powering Cities With Your Footsteps

When most people think of green energy, they think of solar panels on buildings and hybrid engines in cars, but nothing is greener than energy generated from footsteps. And not special footsteps that require Marty McFly’s Air Mags – just the casual footsteps of regular people.

There’s an innovative new company in London, England called Pavegen that is making just that – a surface-padding technology that converts the kinetic energy from everyday foot traffic to electricity that can be used for anything from streetlights to store signs to entire buildings. This is change-the-world, let’s-all-start-walking-everywhere, free-energy-for-all type stuff. 

Being the biggest fans of sustainable surfacing out there, we made sure to get in on the action in a big way. Installed at the feet of 2,500 of the world’s most influential people for this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland were four Pavegen-infused Training Ground tiles made from our amazing Nike Grind.

And while four tiles might not sound like much, the energy produced from these brilliant squares was enough to power 16 LED spotlights in the Forum’s Hub Culture Pavilion – showing delegates from all over the world how big this tech could get if it were installed in places like high-traffic walkways, sports arenas and shopping malls.

So what’s next? Basketball courts made with retired kicks that light entire neighborhoods? Sustainable gym floors that create enough juice for the smoothie shop next door? StepAhead carpet padding that pays you for generating so much electricity for the city? We could dream up these things all day.