Cybershoes, the foot-worn VR locomotion accessory, garnered over $245,000 through its Kickstarter campaign before its close last November. The Vienna-based company has reentered the crowdfunding waters recently with an Indiegogo campaign that celebrates success today after reaching its funding goal in under 48 hours.

Update (February 7th, 2019): Cybershoes has officially passed its $30,000 goal with three weeks still remaining before the campaign’s close, scheduled for March 1st. The original article detailing the Indiegogo launch follows below.

Original Article (February 4th, 2019): The Indiegogo campaign is set to launch on February 5th at 7AM PST (local time here), and has a fixed goal of $30,000, meaning if the campaign doesn’t reach that sum before the end of the campaign then backers will be refunded.

The company says the campaign is intended to “continue to build awareness among consumers and potential investors.”

A preview of the campaign (link now live) has already been made public, which shows 99 ‘early bird specials’ priced at $269. This includes a pair of Cybershoes, swivel chair (black or red), a round carpet, wireless dongle, USB charger and cables.

The total MSRP of the setup mentioned above is priced at $550, representing a 51% savings for the first 99 backers. Delivery to all backers is estimated for July 2019.

Cybershoes is a strap-on shoe covering which features a barrel wheel underneath, that when spun, translates to forward and backwards VR movement. This, the creators say, helps eliminate some of the discomfort with artificial VR locomotion by tying your in-game movement to a physical action. It’s a pretty tried-and-true method, something VR treadmill creators have set out to accomplish with much larger, heavier, and more expensive devices.

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One of the issues we noticed when we first demoed Cybershoes at Gamescom 2018 was a distinct difficulty in physically rotating in the swivel chair while trying to change directions. To address this, the company has added pronounced ridges to the bottom of the device to give it a bit more grip.

Image courtesy Cybershoes

Demoing a near-final pair of Cybershoes at CES 2019 last month, it was clear the ridges helped somewhat with maneuvering, although general operation still took some getting used to. The same can be said about VR treadmills, although the company is clearly honing in on the at-home user with its small footprint needed to use the device, and significantly lower entry price.

Cybershoes supports HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Pimax VR headsets, and Microsoft VR headsets via the SteamVR platform. The creators claim all VR games supporting free locomotion will work with the device.

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Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 3,500 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • iThinkMyCatIsAFlea

    “Running from the comfort of your own chair”

    What a load of nonsense.

    • namekuseijin

      it’s pathetic really

  • jj

    something i wanna try before i buy

    • Trip

      Makes perfect sense, but I had to settle for some rudimentary experiments in “simulating” the product, and checking out what people who have tried it had to say about it to satisfy myself since I wanted the discounted price.

    • Leon

      I thought you said you did and 15+ people from your office. Our was that claim just to try and make a point that was not based on fact.

      • jj

        I should have been more clear. i was speaking in general for products like this you should try it before you buy it. that’s all

  • nasprin

    Why do you need strap-on shoes to wiggle your legs while sitting on a chair – surely it has nothing to do with immersion? It looks unnatural, uncomfortable and very tiring in the long run.

    • jj

      you know whats also tiring in the long run? actually using your legs….. so it looking tiring doesn’t reduce its value

    • Thibault Molleman

      a lot of people who actually tried it said they thought it felt silly at first, but the more they used it, the more they realized they got immersed because of it actually.
      (also some people claim they have less motion sickness, I guess cause you’re tricking your brain more by moving your legs)
      These are just the things I hear

      • jj

        its not your legs that help!!! do some research people(not you specifically thib, jsut in general) its the motion of fluids within your inner ear. you can kick your legs all you want but if ur not tilting your head/body(which youre already doing in the hmd) then this wont help you with motion sickness

        • FriendlyCard

          Actually, moving your legs causes body movement including inner ear. Try the shoes – it’s a revelation.

          • jj

            you can move your legs without moving your body, but i think you’re saying most people will be engaged enough to do it all

    • I’ve tried them at Gamescom. I can tell you that while I don’t love them, they are far better than I had thought…

      • Trip

        Seems to be the general consensus from the “real” people who have tried it. It’s not fantastic, but it’s not terrible and it has a lot of advantages over the alternatives.

        • Agreed. It’s not the best solution but definitely takes less space than the Virtuix Omni, which still doesn’t feel exactly natural. Anything less than real walking (we’re waiting for you, Oculus Quest) remains a fundamental challenge for VR.

          • polysix

            Even ‘real’ walking (in room scale VR) feels weird because of surface differences, it’s never quite as stable as reality and you often feel on edge.

            I don’t know what the real solution is to unhampered transportation in VR (inc running, flying and jumping) but the first people to crack it PROPERLY will be set for life.

          • There is no easy solution. It’s disrupts the experience in my own (small) apartment when I step on or off the rug in my living room – and the rug is pretty minimal. You need an empty floor but that still doesn’t help once you’ve walked 10-12 feet in one direction.

            This will take a long time to work out – heck, we are still wrestling with the challenge of having enough plugs available for our mobile devices in public locations. I don’t think the ultimate solution for VR is the harness arrangement in Ready Player One – just not sure what does solve it.

        • jj

          “real ” people who have tried it?? I tried it at gamescon too and as a “real” person as you described, i do not agree that thats the general consensus.
          we had my whole office of 15+ people around there and those who tried it didn’t like it. sry to spread hate on a product, but at least what i said was true and not made up.

          • Leon

            Except 3 days earlier you said, “something i wanna try before I buy”. So what you said was not true and made up.

          • jj

            I should have been more clear. i was speaking in general for products like this you should try it before you buy it.
            that is all

    • Engineer_92

      You know what else looks unnatural, uncomfortable, and tiring? Actually wearing a headset. But since we’re on this forum, we all know how immersive that is. You should at the very least try the product before making such a bold statement

      • jj

        when somethings obvious, theres no need wasting your time with it. wanna try some heroin before you make a bad statement against it? i didn’t think so

        • Engineer_92

          So you strawman my argument by bringing up heroin?? The point of the comment was to point out that the way something looks isn’t enough to judge its experience. I mean we all literally wear these bulky ass headsets, which I thought I was dumb until I tried it! And wow, was I wrong about VR. Also, this is an original comment that I posted because I disagreed with OP. But if it’s such a ripoff of your commment then why argue against it? You’re literally strawmanning yourself. Are you an idiot, or do you just like to look stupid?

          • jj

            oh man try taking you’re dunce cap off before replying next time.
            i posted
            “you know whats also tiring in the long run? actually using your legs….. so it looking tiring doesn’t reduce its value”
            and you put
            “You know what else looks unnatural, uncomfortable, and tiring? Actually wearing a headset”

            so if you’d read, instead of making urself look stupid, you’d realize that you did steal my comment and that it’s still in a position where i can dispute what you’ve said.

            referring to not trying hard drugs because know you dont want them was a great 1:1 analogy of not buying these because you know you dont want them.

            Do you need me to explain anything else to you at a fifth grade level?

          • jj

            these are all very very easy comments to make, and are very easy to defend. i’d be careful because you’re only argument here is we can’t say anything bad about it till we try it, and thats completely fucking false.

          • Engineer_92

            Nothing to be careful about. I never said he couldn’t feel that way. It was a rebuttal to never having even tried the product. And no doing hard drugs and playing VR is not a 1:1 analogy but nice try buddy. And you’re still disputing yourself which once again makes you look stupid. Do better

          • jj

            if you’d learn to read…. The comparison wasn’t between heroin v VR it was against trying things for the first time and how you don’t have to try everything to know what the outcome will be….
            and no im not disputing myself i commented on legs getting tired and you used my phrase near word for word and changed then last part to wearing a headset and not legs…

      • jj

        not to mention the fact that you just ripped off my comment from below….. but whatever not my problem if you wanna just copy people an not be original…

    • FriendlyCard

      It does look silly, but in reality, it really deepens immersion quite a bit. Try it and you’ll likely agree.

  • impurekind

    Honestly, I happy just using the left analog stick on my Rift to move. But I get why some people would want whatever other method.

    • Trip

      Agreed, if I was happy with using the thumb stick to move I would see no value in this product. In my case, I’ve held off playing VR games that involve walking around any more until I have a suitable solution that doesn’t have me frustrated with the cord, motion sickness, and having to constantly deal with reaching the edges of my play space. I think this will be “good enough” until something better comes along. I’m still hoping that it won’t be too many years before we have a good (active) omni-directional treadmill.

      • jj

        this doesnt necessarily take care of motion sickness or cord entanglement. If you move your feet and dont lean, you’ll get just as sick because your internal ear fluids that you use for balance arent moving with the environment. But i share your optimism for future tech.

  • John Lewis

    Got more dollars than sense? This is the product for YOU!

  • JustNiz

    So they already got fully funded on kickstarter but they are using the same project to get startup funding again this time on indegogo? Is it just me that thinks this sounds fraudulent?

    • Trip

      I thought it was odd too, but I have no doubts that this product will actually get delivered so I’m not going to complain about getting the opportunity to purchase the complete package at what I think is a fairly reasonable price.

  • What? Another crowdfunding???

  • Trip

    I almost ordered during the Kickstarter, this time the complete package (with chair and carpet) for $269 was enough to sell me. Go perch on your computer chair, close your eyes and “simulate” this product by mimicking the motions and picturing the results. I think it’s a great idea. Not only does it give you a way to use your feet to control movement thereby freeing up your hands) and reduce motion sickness, but also can make a much smaller VR space viable. I have issues with my ceiling being a little too low, so being in a sitting position with the HMD cable going straight up is going to be a great benefit as well. No more punching the ceiling or yanking the cord with my arms! I’ve ripped the headset right off my head by the cable more than once (I use Skywin rewinders but only have a 7 foot ceiling).

    Armswinger movement is pretty good, but it interferes with using your hands for other things (like killing people/monsters) and I still move around a bit by accident when turning different directions. NaLo WiP is truly excellent (as is NaLo in general), but requires two trackers or controllers for WiP and I also still find I move around and have to consciously stop and step back to the center of my space frequently. The chair ensures you will stay put in the center of your space while playing without having to consciously make an effort to do so. I also find the CyberShoes method less fatiguing. On that note, if you are worried this is too much “work” for you, you probably need the exercise even more than I do.

    I’m not saying this is a perfect solution by any means, but I think it’s the best solution available for this kind of price point. I couldn’t swallow it for $500 plus, but for the IndieGoGo prices, I’m happy to order it.

    • jj

      hey man based off your comments, it seems like you have ties with them… you’re the only one behind these and everyone else is skeptical. so im skeptical of you and theres a good chance u just work for these guys are trying to get fans….

      • Jistuce

        He’s not the only one that thinks it is a good idea.

  • mfx

    300 usd for a plastic saw with a wheel detector ??

  • LowRezSkyline

    So sitting is the solution? Nah… rather just play in room scale with trackers on my feet.

  • VR-Astro

    Better get them at this price, because no one in their right mind is going to pay over $500 for these. This needs to be $249 or less MSRP.

  • polysix

    Someone needs to maake a vertical ‘chair’ (strap/exoskeleton) to go with this so you can actully stand (and crouch). As it is, it’s very limited because seated takes just as much away from ‘real vr’ as not being able to walk much.

    In other words, many would rather be ‘free’ in 360 standing, to duck/cover, jump, stretch etc than free in VR but without movement freedom (only leg translation). While I like plenty of seated VR (for racers etc), for other VR with differentiating actions in – seated isn’t the way, moving legs or not.

    It’s a puzzler. I still think in the shorter term some kind of expensive exoskeleton suspended suit/frame that can adapt on the fly to any position (flying jumping running laying flat on either side etc) is the only way. It would involve a lot of tech, servos etc but wouldn’t take up any more space in the house than say 8 x 8 feet circle.

    I’m living in a dream world I know but eventually it’ll happen even if it’s 20 years away and we’re all dead.

  • Wow!
    Unbelievable concept. How do they do it?

  • Bryon Hulcher

    this is great technology for people in wheelchairs or who have limited mobility… awesome to see these strides in VR