If an Apple patent application is any indication, athletic shoes may start telling us when they need replacing.
In a patent filed back in July 2012, Curtis Vock and Perry Youngs are listed as the inventors of a "shoe wear-out sensor, body-bar sensing system, unitless activity assessment and associated methods," with Apple Inc. as the assignee. Vock is an intellectual property lawyer with Lathrop & Gage, a law firm based in Boulder, Colo.
The idea of the patent is to warn users of athletic shoes when a "critical wear l
