Samsung’s wild new Shortcut sneakers let you play music and make phone calls by dancing

Limited to only six pairs… until we start our petition

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

If you like the idea of starting a playlist on your phone with a spontaneous moonwalk,Samsunghas just made a pair of limited-edition sneakers for you.

The Shortcut Sneaker, which will sadly be limited to just six pairs, has been created by a combination of Samsung, Elitac Wearables and sneaker designer Roel van Hoff. The Samsung-owned marketing group Chiel Benelux has also had a hand in it, so there’s definitely borderline hint of vaporware about them, but we like the concept.

The Shortcut’s soles contain motion sensors that track their position, with five movements or gestures triggering five distinct actions. Exactly what those shortcuts are isn’t yet completely clear, but some of the examples include making a phone call or playing music by executing a moonwalk.

As the video below explains, you won’t see these sneakers in stores. Instead, the six pairs will be for competition winners, who need to be Samsung Members. You can enter the competition in your Samsung Members account up until July 9 and the winners will apparently be announced during the week of July 15.

With a design that contains multiple nods to Samsung’s Galaxy phones, there certainly won’t be a shortage of entrants among hardcore Samsung fans.

Dancing to a familiar tune

While the Shortcut sneakers are more of concept than a finished product or a signal that Samsung is moving into sneakers, they are definitely an intriguing idea that fits into a growing theme of hands-free gesture controls.

This week,Appleannounced thatAirPods Pro 2owners will soon be able to use ‘head gestures’ iniOS 18to answer phone calls. With the feature enabled, you’ll be able to turn down a call by shaking your head (or nodding, if you want to take it).

Get the best Black Friday deals direct to your inbox, plus news, reviews, and more.

Sign up to be the first to know about unmissable Black Friday deals on top tech, plus get all your favorite TechRadar content.

While the Shortcut promises to be “the first sneaker in the world with which you can call your friends”, according to Samsung, it also isn’t the first example of tech-filled footwear we’ve seen, withNike revealing self-lacing, app-controlled basketball sneakersback in 2019 and theseretro-gaming shoesalso grabbing our attention in 2021.

Nothing can quite top theBack to the Future-inspired Nike HyperAdapt trainers, of course, but we’ll still likely throw our hats into the ring for Samsung’s Shortcut Sneaker while we secretly perfect our moonwalk.

You might also like…

Mark is TechRadar’s Senior news editor. Having worked in tech journalism for a ludicrous 17 years, Mark is now attempting to break the world record for the number of camera bags hoarded by one person. He was previously Cameras Editor at both TechRadar and Trusted Reviews, Acting editor on Stuff.tv, as well as Features editor and Reviews editor on Stuff magazine. As a freelancer, he’s contributed to titles including The Sunday Times, FourFourTwo and Arena. And in a former life, he also won The Daily Telegraph’s Young Sportswriter of the Year. But that was before he discovered the strange joys of getting up at 4am for a photo shoot in London’s Square Mile.

How to lock apps on a Google Pixel phone

I’m a die-hard Apple fan, but even I’ll admit that the Google Pixel 9 Pro is the best-looking phone of the year

Red One isn’t perfect but it proves we need more action-packed Christmas movies