The company making that wacky VR gadget, Cybershoes, yeah, they’ve hit the brakes for good. I mean, where else would you hear about shoes you wear sitting down to pretend you’re walking? Sounds like a joke, right? Anyway — wait, no — here’s the scoop: Antony ‘Skarred Ghost’ Vitillo spilled the beans first, saying they stopped cranking out these things two years back. Then, in 2024, bam, one branch just closed shop. By April 2025, the whole Austrian gig went poof.
Now, MIXED and its detective work, I guess, confirmed that co-founder Igor Mitric Lavovski put it out there on LinkedIn: yup, they packed it in. Though, as with most things, details are murky. No one’s got the full bankruptcy saga yet. Austrian companies, legally speaking, have those 60 days to sort out insolvency, as some lawyer dude in Vienna explained — Andreas Howadt, LL.M, if that rings a bell.
The Cybershoes? Those quirky contraptions? Nothing like your typical VR treadmill shenanigans. Instead of flailing on a moving floor, you sit. Yeah, you read that right. Sit. Shoes on rollers read your foot moves — kinda like pretending to jog while lounging. I mean, neat idea for folks wanting to avoid face-planting while gaming.
They started out in 2018, hustled €200,000 on Kickstarter… oh and IndieGogo? Yeah, tacked on another €140,000. They said it was about getting folks and investors to notice. Didn’t hurt they didn’t snag a big VC backer, huh?
Then, November 2020 hit, and they tried for another Kickstarter round, Quest-compatible this time. Mixed reviews, I guess? Only around $98,000 from 470 hopefuls. Inventory woes ensued, and seems like those things were scarce by late 2024 according to some Amazon tracker named CamelCamelCamel.
For the curious cats out there, check Vitillo’s take on the latest Quest version — if you wanna dive into the nitty-gritty. Or not. I’m not your boss.
