But what do the shoes do?

You mean IF you go out of your way to buy early-gen connected shoes? Yeah that sounds like something you should expect in that case.

This is so fucking redicilous.

No, not the pictured fact, but that insane notion that firmware update for stuff you bought that has firmware = bad. If you buy smart shoes and update them, you have chosen that, you even want updates if you have firmware in them. This isn’t something you have to do if you don’t want to use smart shoes. What a terrible take it is that wow society is going off a cliff because we put technology in stuff. Not really bro. You don’t have to use these things. It’s just something you aren’t used to that happens man wait until you grow older