14 of the Most Creative Redesigns of Classic Products

Adriano Design goes way out of the Ordine-ary with this wall-mounted induction cooktop, a piece they developed for Italian kitchen hood and range manufacturer Fabita. An elegant, modern aesthetic and space-saving installation technique make Ordine a standout addition to small kitchens without a lot of spare countertop area, plus those that don't need a full stovetop, just a couple sexy burners to fry eggs, reheat leftovers, and make simple dinners every now and then.

Vibram, your Furoshiki wrap sneakers have floored me. See, I thought I'd pretty much covered all the wackiest (and also most visually assaulting) athletic / comfort shoes you can buy with discussions of HOKA TenNines and Link Flip-Shoes. But these unisex monstrosities standouts might be the cee-raziest sneaks I've seen yet.

Vibram created their Furoshiki sole, which also appears in a line of mid- and high-wrap shoes and boots, as an equal parts minimalist and functional design. Since Furoshikis wrap around the entire foot to secure, they have an adjustable, custom fit for every foot that wears them. And when the shoes are off, they wrap into themselves, condensing down to little sneaker balls for easy packing.

Spock-approved and primed for interplanar (and intergalactic!) play, this Star Trek Tridimensional Chess Set was released to honor the 50th anniversary of the original Star Trek TV series. Maker Franklin Mint built their "bold, distinctive, eminently logical" game with 3 primary playing boards, plus another 4 movable attack boards, for a Tri-D Chess playing surface that measures 14" tall when assembled.

While the Easybreath mask carries the same depth restrictions as standard snorkels, it removes some of the difficulty and nuisance that come with breathing through a tube underwater.

This is partly because there is no tube. Instead of biting down on a chunky, intrusive mouthpiece that may or may not be laced with MRSA, snorkelers fit Easybreath's panoramic full-face mask over their heads. This enables flippering fully submerged through water while breathing normally through both nose and mouth. Despite its extensive coverage, the mask retains a 180-degree field of vision.

Tribord also fitted its Easybreath with the same double airflow system used in domestic extraction fans to prevent mask fogging. And to preclude water from infiltrating the snorkel, the mask, and the human lungs, Easybreath has a built-in component that automatically plugs the top end of the snorkel when it's immersed.

Rollin' like a...dandelion? Despite their flowery name and wispy connotation, Dandelion concept tires from NEXEN are big 'n' burly issues, built rugged enough to traverse just about any terrain. The low-maintenance, never-flat wheels do earn their dandelion reference, though, via the petal-esque look of their design, a series of 72 independent pins wrapped around the tire hub.

Dandelion pins are flexible and move up and down individually, allowing them to bend in myriad ways, as well as make more complete surface contact with the ground while rolling. Even on unpaved surfaces and off-road settings the tire should provide a safe and steady ride.

Dandelion tire pins can break or sustain damage, but when that happens, you can detach and replace them individually.

What does your chain link fence say about you? Nothing? What if it were inlaid with intricate designs of lace, leaves, butterflies, kings of the jungle, or the face of Darth Vadar? Lace Fence is a traditional, fully functional industrial barrier fabricated with artistic patterns and images. Dutch designer Redfort deems it their "architectural fabric," a merging of the practical, but ugly, with the beautiful, but inconvenient for the average person to embed in white PVC-coated galvanized iron.

Lace fence comes in preset patterns, as well as custom designs lifted from clients' photos or sketches.

The San Francisco Bay Area: Big waters, small living spaces, crowded streets, zero parking. Because Anton Willis loves to kayak, and because he isn't a whiner who sits around complaining about problems instead of doing something about them, he embraced his city's perks, and developed the Oru Kayak to accommodate its flaws. A foldable boat in a compact carrying case, the Oru Kayak maintains the high-performance needs of avid paddlers, but breaks down post-use into a 33" x 29" x 10" rectangle easily storable in a car trunk, hall closet, sailboat, office cube, or even jimmied atop a backpack during hikes to more remote waters.

The Oru Kayak team designed their origami-inspired boat to transform quickly and easily, with an assembly time of around 5 minutes, and no tools necessary. At full size, it measures 12' long x 25" wide and weighs only 25 pounds. Not bad for their promise that it will also handle smoothly and stably darting through waves with a load of up to 260 pounds.

Usually when people describe themselves they inflate the truth or do that reverse psychology trick where they say a bunch of self-deprecating things in an effort to convey the opposite meaning. In both cases they would like everyone to believe they are awesome. But when Splinterworks, creators of this carbon fiber hammock bathtub named Vessel, terms themselves designers of "sculptural furniture that is engaging and inspiring" and suggests pieces forged at their hands will "enrich the lives" of those who use them, I don't see an ounce of exaggeration at work. To me, the Vessel looks to be the Supreme Mac Daddy of wash basins. The Jay-Z of bathtubs. It could start a bathtub empire.

The terraplanter is a low maintenance inside-out hydroponic planter for outside-in plant growing. The honeycombed cone has a hollow core for holding water, and is made from a proprietary ceramic material just porous enough to let that water slowly seep through it. Awaiting plant roots, now growing on the exterior of their "pot", are then able to absorb their fill of water, achieving hydration without sacrificing aeration, or risking rot-inducing saturation.

Soil quality and characteristics aren't an issue with the terraplanter because it doesn't use any. The last bit of dirt on this inside-out planter is that there is none.