Biologically modified live shoe soles, grow back replacing the bottom layer like the hand grows back the thin layer of rubbed skin every day.
-- pashute, Sep 03 2023

So the whole shoe is a living organism? How is it fed? Does it have a mouth, roots...?
-- 21 Quest, Sep 03 2023


It's all fun and games until it evolves a brain.
-- Voice, Sep 03 2023


Also known as: feet
-- pocmloc, Sep 03 2023


A1, from your 1st link:

"However, to help progress the development of fungal ELMs that use the organism's ability to regenerate as self-repair, new methods for controlling and optimizing mycelium materials are required, in addition to improved understanding of the biological mechanisms behind regeneration."

This appears to be very much in the theoretical stage still.
-- 21 Quest, Sep 03 2023


It would be pretty cool if they could bio engineer a material that feeds on sweat and dead skin. That would provide source material for regenerative healing, and be like getting a pedicure every time you go for a walk.
-- 21 Quest, Sep 03 2023


If it slightly heated on contact, and cooled just before liftoff you could use chewing gum.
-- mylodon, Sep 05 2023



random, halfbakery