Feedback: Sneakers made of stingrays


Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more


RECENTLY Feedback was wondering about a shop in the UK town of Kimberley, Nottinghamshire, offering "Animal Designer Accessories" (4 May). Could this allow us to design an animal to our own specifications, we wondered. Sasha Frank alerts us to just such an example in the wonderful virtual world of the web, at rayfish.com.


This offers you the chance to "grow your own sneaker". Specify your pattern online and the website promises to genetically engineer a stingray, slaughter it and make sneakers from its skin. Sasha confesses that he "fell for the hoax".


He wasn't the only one. A site called escapistmagazine.com carries a report from a would-be customer, who received this regretful message from rayfish.com: "A while ago you participated in our 'Grow Your Sneaker' contest... We regret to ...


To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.