These boots were made for sleeping: introducing the tent shoe

Picture the scene. You've gone out for a quiet evening walk in the country when BOOM! you're hit with that overwhelming urge to pitch a tent and camp for the night.

Sadly, you didn't bring a rucksack and you're not wearing your tent jacket, so your hopes for a night under the stars are cruelly dashed. We've all been there, I'm sure. But imagine how different things would be if you had, oh I don't know, some way of storing a tent in your trainers...

Well now you do. Or at least you could if the Australian designers behind the Waling Shelter get their way. They have come up with a "human shelter" (ie tent) stored within a pair of shoes. The flysheet is hidden away in integrated net pockets within the shoe and when you're ready for a kip, the shelter expands out and around the body to form an enclosure that relies on the human frame as a supporting structure.

Skeptical? Take a look at these pictures and tell me that this isn't the future...

























Click here to see some more weird tents