The Shoe Phone

Maxwell Smart had one so why can't I? The shoe phone is freaking awesome! Maybe it's not the most practical thing in the world but it's cool!

I want to share a little story before we start: I basically built this thing in secret, nobody knew about it. So the first time I unveiled it was pretty freaking hilarious. I was out to a fancy dinner with my girlfriend Rosie. We were all dressed up and celebrating our anniversary. I asked a friend to call me at exactly 8:17pm. When 8:17 rolls around I get a phone call (I made sure to have the ringer all the way up so everyone in the restaurant could hear it). I let it ring a few times before I bent down, took off my shoe, removed the heal, and answered the call.

Nobody knew what the heck was going on! Not even Rosie. I had a short conversation, hung up, put my shoe back on, and continued on with the dinner. It was great! I highly recommend doing something like this yourself.

Ok now let's to get to the build process, it's really not that hard.

If you like this and want to learn more or see what other things I'm up to check out my website at travderose.com

• Dress Shoes with a heel you don't mind cutting off
• A bluetooth headset. I used this one but I think most will work. Maybe this one?
• 2 part epoxy
• Self-adhesive Velcro strips

Take apart the bluetooth headset so that the speaker and microphone free. Don't cut the wires though.

If you like this and want to learn more or see what other things I'm up to check out my website at travderose.com

Use an exact knife or something to cut off the heel of the shoe. Just slice the top layer off.

My heel was made entirely of rubber and it worked fine. I imagine a wooden heel would also work well.

I used the each knife again to hollow out the heel. Kinda figure out the placement of how everything will work.

Make sure the microphone and speaker are exposed.

Make sure you'll be able to charge the headset

And make sure you can access any buttons that need to be accessible

If you like this and want to learn more or see what other things I'm up to check out my website at travderose.com

Use your 2 part epoxy to glue in the bluetooth headset. Also glue the speaker and microphone in appropriate places.

Use the velcro strips to allow the heel to be be easily removable and also stay on while you walk.

There may be a better way to do this. I had the heel come off once while I was walking. The Velcro works good enough but there's probably a better way to do it.

Let me know in the comments if you have an idea.

You're done! Go out and surprise some people with your shoe phone. Walk down the street in a sock talking on this bad boy.

Over all sound quality is good and people say they can hear my voice just fine. Sometimes when I walk it will push the button on the headset and call somebody so be aware of that. there's probably a way to fix that.

But overall, it's a fun thing to do the works good enough.

Have fun!

-Trav

If you like this and want to learn more or see what other things I'm up to check out my website at travderose.com