Clarks is a big shoe brand in the UK, that recently was visited by BBC for an interesting story. The reporting involved the use of iPads in measuring feet, especially children’s feet. There’s a special piece of software that keeps the little ones busy while they’re having the feet measured and shows nifty animations of how the measurement happens.
Clarks foot data is a bit of a trade secret and the iPad is a good resource for research and keeping track of trends and measurements. It appears that when compared with the top shoes for standing, the average foot sizes have increased by two sizes over the past 30 years, being blamed on obesity. The gizmo you can see in the video below lets the kid sit on top of it, it measures the foot and quickly delivers data to the iPad, then to the Clarks database and server.
Notice that the iPads used here have a special case, both protective and allowing the slate to slide within the contraption. Clarks has spent millions of pounds on this system, getting ready to store millions of measurements and customer sizes. This means they can alter orders and stocks depending on these sizes. Now that’s an iPad-based invention that’s actually useful!
