Love the relaxed comfort of flip-flops? Then you’ll adore these new Pop-Up Slippers (okay, maybe not), which add the convenience of storing flat into the footwear’s list of virtues.
Sure, a pair of slippers isn’t all that hard to fit into your luggage, anyway. With the Pop-Up Slippers, though, the whole deal becomes all that much easier. Simply unhook the studs and it’s 100% flat, allowing you to slip it into any small nook and cranny. Heck, slide it inside your laptop bag, next to your notebook, and you’ll barely know it’s there.
Consisting of a single slab of foam that’s been cut to allow the two edges to fold over the foot, it’s a brilliant update to the normally multi-component design of Japanese slippers. With a hole on the rear end and a stud on the front, the two folded edges come together to turn out a functional footwear. When unfolded, they don’t even look like slippers – just slices of rubber you carry around for whatever reason (like swatting flies, for instance).
The retailer is hoping to move units based on the fact that it’s “thin, lightweight, and easy to assemble.” That’s a good idea because the thing is unforgivably ugly (just horrid-looking, really), not to mention unsuited for active uses.  Obviously, carry only if you’re really strapped for space.
Created by Japanese designers Genta and Chie Kanayama, the Pop-Up Slippers are currently available for $35. It comes in two colors, orange and green, both of them very unsightly.
[Curiosite via Book Of Joe]