KINETIC ENERGY SHOE

TitleKINETIC ENERGY SHOE
BrandGREEN CROSS VIETNAM
Product / ServiceTHE SHOE THAT GENERATES POWER WITH EVERY STEP
CategoryA02. Creative Innovation (incl. business solutions in association with a brand or creative campaign)
EntrantDDB GROUP VIETNAM Ho Chi Minh City, VIETNAM
Entrant Company DDB GROUP VIETNAM Ho Chi Minh City, VIETNAM
Advertising Agency DDB GROUP VIETNAM Ho Chi Minh City, VIETNAM

Credits

Name Company Position
John Sampson DDB Group Vietnam Executive Creative Director
Jet Anthony Uy Dela Cruz DDB Group Vietnam Associate Creative Director
Milton Ganelo DDB Group Vietnam Associate Creative Director
Kevin Beltran DDB Group Vietnam Senior Art Director
Huy Thuy Thanh Thao DDB Group Vietnam Account Executive
Daniel Gordon Jones DDB Group Vietnam Managing Director
Nghiem Vu DDB Group Vietnam Client Service Director
Nguyen Quang Nam Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology Head Technologist
Nguyen Dinh Khang Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology Technologist
Le Tan Thong Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology Technologist
Nguyen The Toan Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology Technologist
Tran Nguyen Minh Quan Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology Technologist
Carl Chay DDB Group Vietnam Editor
Bui Ngoc Phuong filmbase Asia (Vietnam) Managing Director
Charm Wall filmbase Asia (Vietnam) Executive Producer
China Yoo filmbase Asia (Vietnam) Producer
Nguyen Van Manh Videographer
Kiet Nguyen Videographer
Jerick Pulad Redhub Editor
Bruno Lovric Voice Over Talent

The Brief

In Vietnam many children have to walk long distances to and from school. The problem, when they get home it's already dark and they live in areas without power. We developed the Kinetic Energy shoe in partnership with the University of Technology in HCMC, a shoe that generates power with every step. The key to the technological breakthrough was repurposing of existing technology in a new way to make it efficient enough to generate enough power. By repurposing piezo -elements, originally designed for stereo speakers, to capture the pressure of the foot moving up and down, in combination with the most efficient combination of the other elements, we were able to create a shoe that fulfilled our 4 criteria. 1, Efficiency 2, Robustness 3, Simplicity 4, Cost. For the shoe to work at mass scale it had to satisfy these 4 criteria in order to to scalable and mass produceable. We had to create an original shoe using our technology that was capable of generating enough power by walking no more than 15 kilometers to succeed.Working with an interdisciplinary team of students at the University of Technology in Ho Chi Minh City, many trials to find the right elements from different field of engineering and electric studies, we managed to find a simple ways of harnessing kinetic energy, convert it to electrical energy and store it in a battery. The technology is still at alpha stage and trials continue, research will be made to reach maximum potential and efficiency of the kinetic energy shoe before it enters mass production.

The goal is mass production of the Kinetic Energy shoe at scale. To help people in need of this technology. Mass production of the Kinetic energy shoe is being negotiated right now.* This project is a game changer in Vietnam and globally. For Green Cross, the Kinetic Energy shoe has demonstrated they are at the leading edge of innovation to improve peoples lives.The Kinetic Energy shoe is being toured around schools in Vietnam. 100 schools visited to date with a goal of visiting 500 schools by year end. It has already led to a brand awareness increase of 60% for Green Cross YTD in Vietnam. We are currently developing ways to make the technology more efficient. Prototypes are currently being tried and tested and the technology team have a weekly visit to check, update and get information to the improvements of the kinetic energy shoe.This idea has global application and could revolutionize power generation at a micro scale. * See confidential information.

Green Cross is a manufacturer of healthy living products with a mission to help people though innovation to improve their lives. Their business problem was that while many people know it's products, few Vietnamese know it's brand or what it stands for. The opportunity was 'to rise above the competitive spend' by solving a real social problem in Vietnam. To take the Green Cross brand to a new level and a wider audience by demonstrating actual innovation and commitment to healthy living in Vietnam. The Green Cross Kinetic Energy shoe solves a real problem in Vietnam. Harnessing the existing kinetic energy of the kids walking up to 15 kilometers everyday, we managed to progress and innovate an alternative solution which is piezoelectric elements that is only used in crystal speaker like frequency generators. This is a new approach on a existing technique, where kinetic energy is a source of power. With the limited resources available to them, the team managed to find an alternative solution and make it compact and simple to apply to a shoe. Walking generates kinetic energy. The kinetic energy will be transformed into electrical energy as an AC current through piezo elements under the sole of shoes. This AC (Alternative current) can’t be used to charge batteries. To solve this problem, we used the full-bridge rectifier which includes 4 diodes to transform it to DC (Direct current). To stabilize the DC we pass through a capacitor as a filter and transfer and store the charge signal in the battery. When the batteries are fully charged, the child can remove and light up their lamp. Seed capital was made by Green Cross Incorporated and their subsidiary company is on board to make additional funding to furthermore the research and create a bigger impact to Vietnamese community.