Kris Hedstrom, the director of CHEP's Innovation Center, which adjoins the plant, is wearing earplugs, protective glasses and hard plastic shoe covers over his toes.

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One of the most innovative versions of a plastic shoe is the Imprint Therapeutic Shoe, made by Andrew Poynton, a high-tech farrier who works in Malmesbury, England.

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An hour before his Emporio Armani presentation, the designer slipped on a pair of plastic shoe covers and stood on the pristine white runway to give the 70-odd models his ritual pep talk.

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While Davis took off his shoes and set them in the plastic shoe racks at the base of the giant coiling hamster maze that commanded the front of the restaurant, Lucy sat down beneath a signed poster of the crew of STS-95 an ancient John Glenn among them and dialed the number of Dr. Trimble's office from memory.

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Attendees in Shanghai included a production executive at Nike's close-by Suzhou Sports subsidiary, which makes the rigid plastic support of its shoe's sole using Huntsman's diphenylmethane diisocyanate, or MDI.

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Attendees in Shanghai included a production executive at Nike (nyse: NKE - news - people )'s close-by Suzhou Sports subsidiary, which makes the rigid plastic support of its shoe's sole using Huntsman's diphenylmethane diisocyanate, or MDI.

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Mr Poynton's shoe is made of mouldable plastic.

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We were lucky that the "shoe bomber" failed to ignite the plastic explosive in his sneakers, lucky that the "underwear bomber" similarly botched his crotch bomb, and lucky that the "Times Square bomber" bollixed up the timer for his car full of explosives.

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Reid's shoes allegedly contained several bomb-related materials including the explosive PETN, plastic chemicals to gel and mold the explosives and TATP, a highly sensitive material needed to detonate the shoe bombs, sources told CNN.

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