Adidas is getting into gaming. Though not quite like you would think. Adidas is building in an augmented reality game right into their shoes.

The way it works is that Adidas is embedding a code right into the tongue of the shoe. You then hold the shoe up to a webcam, and the code gives you access to a secret area on the Adidas website where you can play games. This gets even more wacky - You use the shoe as the game controller. Say what? From what I can tell, you jump into a virtual version of the Adidas Originals Neighborhood, and interact with stuff.

“We are not trying to mimic a real-world look, we have a more stylized, pop-up book creative approach,” says Barbour, Head of Digital Marketing for Adidas Originals. “The neighborhood is displayed on a two dimensional computer screen, but you can use your shoe to control the angle and depth of view and zoom in and out, giving a 3-D sense of perspective.”

Adidas is developing 5 shoe styles that will feature this code, and dubs the shoe the Original AR Game Pack. You can only get the shoes at Champs Sports stores and EastBay.com, and are set to go on sale on Feb 10th. One new game will launch each month until April. Word on the street is that the first game has something to do with skateboarding, the second one is a Star Wars like game, and the third is rhythm-based game. I am getting a pair just to write up some impressions of it here on the The Kartel!

Augmented reality games are start to take off, though I think of it as something much more experimental than practical. We did see a cool implementations of it at CES this year, with a notable one, the Parrot G Drone, covered in our Cool Gadgets of CES. I think the definition of AR is a bit malleable, especially if using your shoe as a controller is considering Augmented Reality gaming. Pretty sure if you use my sneaker as a controller, the smell might be the fatality.