Stressed? Try wearing your garden on your feet

Doughnut producers Krispy Kreme have provided a wacky solution to the problem of stress in the office - a living flip-flop.

In response to a survey which revealed that while 72 per cent of office workers feel stressed, 81 per cent were calmed by a walk in the park, the company has designed a shoe which grows grass on its sole.

The al fresco flip-flops each contain some 5,000 blades of grass and can last for four months if watered regularly, allowing the wearer to walk in their own mini park with every step.

Katie McDermott from Krispy Kreme explained the reasoning behind the venture.

"What better way to escape the concrete jungle than by slipping on a pair of grass flip-flops and walking around in your own mobile meadow.

"Hopefully by providing [people] with their own part of park life, we'll be able to bring a sense of natural calm to stressed-out workers," she said.

The company is currently distributing the footwear free to commuters in London, with a view to giving them out around the country soon.

Krispy Kreme was established in the US in 1937 and opened its first UK store within Harrods in October 2003.

The garden flip-flops are just one in a long line of innovative footwear - it was announced earlier in 2008 that a shoe designer in Japan had launched a range of footwear with a GameBoy embedded in the heel. Mainly aimed at young girls, the shoes enable gaming on the go to become easier.