ERAM #Choose Connected Shoe: Smart Textile Meets Fashion

Eram’s Connected Shoe: When Fashion Meets Smart Textile

Eram, in partnership with BLUEGRioT, is pushing fashion innovation forward with a connected shoe powered by smart textile technology. Designed to change style on demand, the concept uses embedded optical fibers that let users customize color through a mobile app.

With an integrated battery and smartphone connectivity, the shoe adapts instantly to the wearer’s look, blending technology and style for a modern, flexible expression of fashion.

A Pioneering Innovation: The First Connected Shoe

This pioneering project, led by Eram and Phocéis in collaboration with Unistudio, was selected through the NSE6 call for projects (PICOM). It began with a strategy workshop to define the roadmap for what would become a major milestone: the first connected shoe.

Prototypes were developed at factories in Montjean-sur-Loire, combining BLUEGRioT electronics with connected, light-enabled textiles. Phocéis managed the sizing and integration of the electronic design and illuminated textile into the sole. The key innovation: iOS app control to change the shoe’s colors, enabling a personalized and highly engaging user experience.

Smart Textile Technology Inside the #Choose Shoe

Integrating LIGHTEX smart textile (Brochier Technologies) into the upper of the connected shoe makes it possible to personalize color based on the outfit and the wearer’s mood. This feature brings together freedom, technology, and style, positioning the product as a truly on-trend smart object.

Smart textile represents a major technological step: embedding electronic functions directly into fabric. It opens new possibilities for design and performance, including integrated lighting that can change color via an app. This marks a meaningful move toward interactive clothing and accessories, increasing personalization and user interaction in fashion products.

Beyond Color: Built-In Smart Features

Beyond color customization, #Choose includes intelligent features such as:

• A pedometer to support lifestyle use cases
• The ability to save users’ color selections for trend analysis
• Wireless inductive charging for a frictionless daily experience

App-Controlled Personalization

App control is at the heart of Eram’s #Choose innovation. The smartphone app enables direct, intuitive interaction with the shoes, delivering an unprecedented level of personalization.

1. Color Selection: A virtual palette lets users choose colors for the optical-fiber panels and integrated LED system.
2. Color Capture: The app can use the smartphone camera to pick a color from the user’s environment.
3. Music Mode: Colors shift in sync with the rhythm of the music being played, ideal for events and experiences.
4. Ease of Use: Designed to be intuitive and accessible, the app is available in French and English, and was initially iOS-only to ensure a high-quality user experience.
5. Wireless Inductive Charging: The app complements a cable-free charging system for everyday convenience.

The Future of ERAM #Choose

What makes #Choose stand out is the fusion of technology and fashion. “BLUEGRioT brings its technology expertise, and we bring our shoemaking know-how, which allows us to offer a fashionable and comfortable product,” says Renaud Montin.

After being showcased at CES 2016, Eram’s connected shoe #Choose took key steps toward commercialization. The sneakers became available for purchase starting in fall 2017, with 150 limited-edition pairs sold at €289 each, both at Eram’s Paris store (Forum des Halles) and on its e-shop.

The project also highlighted French expertise, with industrialization and manufacturing carried out in Pays de la Loire, underscoring Eram’s commitment to innovation and Made in France production.