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Each year companies spend millions of dollars designing tools and processes to improve worker safety and productivity. But what about society’s sex workers? Lacking a union, an employee handbook or even those helpful OSHA posters in the coffee room, who’s looking out for the safety and welfare of today’s sex workers?

Frankly, no one - except perhaps artist/designer Norene Leddy. Identifying an unmet need in the marketplace, Leddy spent hundreds of hours interviewing sex workers from around the world in her effort to design a new tool (no pun intended) for the world’s oldest profession.

Dubbed the Aphrodite Project, the result is a 4platform shoe packed with enough high-tech gear to inspire envy in even the most gadget-savvy geek. Complete with a GPS locator, a 911 panic button and a video screen, it’s like an On-Star system for your shoe.The GPS technology links the wearer to emergency services and an online community network. A panic button sets off a screeching audible alarm to fend off attackers and can be wired to alert the police in the case of an emergency.

Since sex workers are literally walking billboards, the platform shoes come equipped with a video screen which allows users to create customized advertising messages such as rate sheets and availability all set to the tune of a personalized music soundtrack. With PDA software, it could even display customer databases and a calendar, storing your ?little black bookin your little black pumps. Addressing the need for a stronger sense of community amongst sex workers, a website provides users with a blog, chat rooms and additional audio and video downloads for the shoes.

The adult sex industry has typically been at the leading edge of technology adoption. But while Leddy’s project initially targeted contemporary sex workers, we think she created a product with mass market appeal. You go, girl.

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