A shoe phone is a shoe that has a telephone within it. Though there is no specific evidence that spies or those involved in espionage actually used shoe phones, they were popularised by fictional spies in television shows, most notably the television series Get Smart . Modern mobile phone technology has allowed for the development and production of working shoe phones. [1]
Though the shoe phone was popularised by fictional television and film "spies", there is no specific evidence that functional, operating shoe phones were given to actual spies. It is not clear whether the technology required to create a working shoe phone was available and practical during the height of the Cold War, the era on which many fictional representations are based. [2]
A shoe phone of the sort depicted by Get Smart would almost certainly not have been possible in the era depicted by the show (1960s and 70s). When the Central Intelligence Agency announced that one of Don Adams' prop shoe phones would be placed on display at the CIA Museum, the agency dismissed any link to actual spy equipment and said shoe phones and other such gadgets were, "but fantasy precursors to today’s wireless communications". [3]
The most famous example of a shoe phone in fiction is featured on the television show Get Smart . The use of a shoe phone is a gimmick of the show's main character, Maxwell Smart (played by Don Adams), a secret agent who has need to conceal a communication device in his shoe.
The device had a removable sole which allowed access to a telephone handset. Like many gadgets depicted in the series, the shoe phone was a parody of communication gadgets in James Bond films, which were themselves often fantastical.
In the 1990s, Sports Illustrated developed and promoted a "Sneaker Phone", a sports shoe that included a (corded) phone. The company began a television campaign to promote a special deal whereby consumers who subscribed to their magazine received a free Sneaker Phone. [4] The product was created for Sports Illustrated by Kinetic Marketing Inc., a firm known for creating promotional products for large magazines throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as closed-circuit television (CCTV), or interception of electronically transmitted information like Internet traffic. It can also include simple technical methods, such as human intelligence gathering and postal interception.
Donald James Yarmy, known professionally as Don Adams, was an American actor, comedian, and director. In his five decades on television, he was best known as Maxwell Smart in the television situation comedy Get Smart, which he also sometimes directed and wrote. Adams won three consecutive Emmy Awards for his performance in the series (1967–1969). Adams also provided the voices for the animated series Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales (1963–1966) and Inspector Gadget (1983–1986) as well as several revivals and spinoffs of the latter in the 1990s.
Get Smart is an American comedy television series, parodying the secret agent genre that had become widely popular in the first half of the 1960s with the release of James Bond films. It was created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, and had its television premiere on NBC on September 18, 1965. It stars Don Adams as agent Maxwell Smart, Barbara Feldon as Agent 99, and Edward Platt as The Chief. Henry said that they created the show at the request of Daniel Melnick to capitalize on James Bond and Inspector Clouseau, "the two biggest things in the entertainment world today". Brooks described it as "an insane combination of James Bond and Mel Brooks comedy".
Mass surveillance is the intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population in order to monitor that group of citizens. The surveillance is often carried out by local and federal governments or governmental organizations, such as organizations like the NSA, but it may also be carried out by corporations. Depending on each nation's laws and judicial systems, the legality of and the permission required to engage in mass surveillance varies. It is the single most indicative distinguishing trait of totalitarian regimes. It is also often distinguished from targeted surveillance.
The Cone of Silence is one of many recurring joke devices from Get Smart, a 1960s American comedy television series about an inept spy. The essence of the joke is that the apparatus, designed for secret conversations, makes it impossible for those inside the device – and easy for those outside the device – to hear the conversation.
Sneakers are shoes primarily designed for sports or other forms of physical exercise, but which are now also widely used for everyday casual wear.
The Adidas_1 was a running shoe made by German multinational corporation Adidas, introduced in early 2005. It was the second general consumer sneaker to incorporate a computer. The shoe was ahead of its time and a brand statement quickly followed by the introduction of an improved generation shortly after the release of the original shoes, which was called Intelligence Level 1.1. The shoe was later discontinued and later followed by the Adidas_1 basketball shoe, introduced in 2006.
Spy Game is an American action-adventure television series that aired on ABC for 13 episodes during the spring and summer of 1997. The series was created by screenwriter and physician Ivan Raimi, director Sam Raimi, and writer John McNamara. The series was originally developed under the title Cloak and Dagger, but was renamed prior to airing.
British Knights is an American brand founded in 1983 by Jack Schwartz Shoes Inc., based in New York City. In the 1980s, British Knights distinguished themselves as an inner-city and music-driven brand, appealing to the predominantly male youth in urban communities.
Spy-fi is a subgenre of spy fiction that includes elements of science fiction, and is often associated with the Cold War. Features of spy-fi include the effects of technology on the espionage trade and the technological gadgets used by the characters, even though the technologies and gadgets portrayed are well beyond current scientific reality.
Tinker Linn Hatfield, Jr., is an American designer of numerous Nike athletic shoe models, including the Air Jordan 3 through Air Jordan 15, the twentieth-anniversary Air Jordan XX, the Air Jordan XXIII, the 2010 (XXV), the 2015 Air Jordan XX9 (XXIX), and other athletic sneakers including the world's first "cross training" shoes, the Nike Air Trainer. Hatfield oversees Nike's "Innovation Kitchen". He is Nike's Vice President for Design and Special Projects. For his many innovative designs and numerous creations over more than three decades, Hatfield is considered a legend of design.
Sneaker collecting is the acquisition and trading of sneakers as a hobby. It is often manifested by the use and collection of shoes made for particular sports, particularly basketball and skateboarding. A person involved in sneaker collecting is sometimes called a sneakerhead.
The 5ive is a television show that aired on BET. The show premiered on June 4, 2007, replacing Hotwyred. The show is hosted by Alesha Reneé, a winner in the "New Faces" contest. It is a half-hour show that counted down the five hottest people, places, events, gadgets, and websites. The last show aired on November 30, 2007.
The Nike Blazer was only the third shoe released under the newly named sports brand "Nike" in 1973, originally developed as a basketball shoe.
Ongoing news reports in the international media have revealed operational details about the Anglophone cryptographic agencies' global surveillance of both foreign and domestic nationals. The reports mostly emanate from a cache of top secret documents leaked by ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden, which he obtained whilst working for Booz Allen Hamilton, one of the largest contractors for defense and intelligence in the United States. In addition to a trove of U.S. federal documents, Snowden's cache reportedly contains thousands of Australian, British, Canadian and New Zealand intelligence files that he had accessed via the exclusive "Five Eyes" network. In June 2013, the first of Snowden's documents were published simultaneously by The Washington Post and The Guardian, attracting considerable public attention. The disclosure continued throughout 2013, and a small portion of the estimated full cache of documents was later published by other media outlets worldwide, most notably The New York Times, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Der Spiegel (Germany), O Globo (Brazil), Le Monde (France), L'espresso (Italy), NRC Handelsblad, Dagbladet (Norway), El País (Spain), and Sveriges Television (Sweden).
The Double Life of Henry Phyfe is a 17-episode American sitcom broadcast on ABC from January 13 to September 1, 1966, and starring Red Buttons.
Smart shoes is a smart footwear technology. It adopts smartphone applications to support tasks cannot be done with standard footwear. The uses shows vibrating of the smart phone to tell users when and where to turn to reach their destination via Google Maps or self-lacing.
Self-tying shoes are designed to automatically tighten once the user puts them on. Such types of "smart shoes" were initially depicted in the 1989 science fiction film Back to the Future Part II.
On, sometimes referred to as On Running is an athletic shoe and performance sportswear company originating in Switzerland that designs and markets sports clothing and running shoes.
