New-York based designer Jessica Thies designed a speculative shoe concept made with biobased printing ink embedded with living microalgae.

For her thesis, Thies looked at the possibility of culturing microalgae cells on textile for carbon-capturing, photosynthetic materials. She managed to add living microalgae to printing ink, creating a living material.

This ink was used in the development of the shoe concept. The upper consists of natural hemp fabric and is printed with the ink, to create ‘active objects’, as Thies calls them. The microalgae in the ink can remain alive in the shoe for up to four weeks without further nutrients. To keep them alive linger, they need to be watered and fed nutrients and oxygen-producing cyanobacteria using a hydroponics system, similar to those developed to irrigate plants. If the algae die, the green colour slowly fades away.

At the moment, the soles are made of polyurethane foam, but Thies aims to use a biobased and biodegradable alternative in the future.

Photos: Jessica Thies