Textile and footwear innovations feature extensively in the 2024 ‘Best Inventions’ list, recently published by Time magazine.

Time has been publishing this list every year for more than two decades, with its editors and correspondents around the world nominating products that seem worthy inclusion. It evaluates contenders for originality, efficacy, ambition and impact.

In its Accessibility category, this year’s list includes MOGO, a robotic knee-relief product that Arc’teryx has developed with Google spin-off Skip. There is also a treadmill for wheelchair users, developed by South Korean start-up Kangsters.

There is also a Fitness category, which this year includes On’s Cloudboom Strike LightSpray shoe, and Merrell’s SpeedARC Surge BOA hiking footwear. Hiking shoes also feature in a separate Outdoors category in the shape of Keen’s Targhee IV product. This category also includes the Endless Promise sleeping-bag collection for which recycled down specialist Allied Feather + Down supplied material to camping brand Nemo.

Also of interest to Sportstextiles readers is the Sustainability category. Here, two companies we have featured prominently are included among the creators of this year’s ‘Best Inventions’.

The first of these is Allbirds, which wins inclusion for a shoe called M0.0nshot Zero. The second is Ambercycle for its Cycora regenerated materials (pictured).