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Knitted footwear technology is poised to enhance sustainability and walkability alike.
On a recent Monday morning in Portland, Oregon—that walkable mecca routinely voted one of the country's most livable cities, and also home of the North American headquarters for Nike and Adidas—I found myself mesmerized by the feet of passersby. We look to our shoes not just to bring us from place to place but also to telegraph our identity. They're a little like cars in that sense, except we can buy a whole lot more of them, so we can change that identity from one day to the next. But despite the varying looks of shoes, the basics of making them haven't changed much. Until now.

If you ever need an example of the exponential rise of technology, look no further than the digital camera. The ability to capture images on an electronic sensor has transformed photography and the way we record life's precious moments (and plenty of the un-precious ones as well) in less than 25 years. So how will we capture our holiday snaps when another two decades have passed? By 2030, will today's spanking new DSLR be as unrecognizable as a box brownie is today? 

GLANCE at any technology blog, and all the innovation in the world of timekeeping seems to be captured by two words: smart watches. 
Almost every week new designs emerge from electronics giants such as Samsung and Sony, Kickstarted minnows like Pebble and Martian, and even the odd pop star (will.i.am says his smart watch will go on sale this summer). So what new product is Swatch— which in 1983 transformed dull digital watches into must-have fashion accessories, thus saving Switzerland’s watch industry—now launching? A self-winding mechanical watch it calls Sistem51.