In the mid-1980s, the first sports shoe with air-cushioned soles came onto the market. Today, Dutch biochem start-up Mevaldi is literally going a step further â” and betting quite a lot, if not all, on sugar. Using a patented thermochemical method, the company is turning this raw material into bio-based polyurethane that can then be processed into shoe soles. Whether the footwear will stick to the pavement in the rain upon dissolving into its sugary components, remains to be seen. But Charlie Chaplin, the leather-shoe-consuming tramp in the The Gold Rush a century ago, certainly would have delighted in a high-energy dessert to top off his meal.
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