KinesioloGENE

Reinschmidt C, Nigg BM.   Human Performance Laboratory, University of Calgary, Canada.

This review paper focuses on the three most important functional design factors for sport shoes: injury prevention, performance and comfort. Concepts for these design factors are discussed for running and court shoes. For running shoes, pronation control and cushioning are still considered to be the key concepts for injury prevention despite the fact that conclusive clinical and epidemiological evidence is missing to show the efficacy of these design strategies. Several design features have been proposed to be effective in controlling the amount of pronation. However, the kinematic effects of such features seem to be subject-specific and rather small especially when looking at the actual skeletal motion. Recent running shoe research suggests that cushioning may not or only marginally be related to injuries and that cushioning during the impact phase of running may be more related to aspects such as comfort, muscle tuning or fatigue. For court shoes, lateral stability, torsional flexibility, cushioning and traction control appear to be important design strategies to decrease the risk of injury. With respect to running performance, the shoe concepts of weight reduction, efficiency and energy return are discussed. The concept of energy return does not seem to be a feasible concept whereas concepts which aim to minimize energy loss appear to be more promising and successful, e.g. weight reduction, reduction of muscle energy required for stabilization. For court shoes, optimal traction seems to be the key factor for performance. Research in the area of shoe comfort is still sparse. Cushioning, fitting and climate concepts appear to improve the comfort of both running and court shoes. Many investigations in the area of sport shoe research have shown that subject-specific responses can be expected. Different groups of athletes may require different types of shoes. The definition of these grouping characteristics and their design needs seem to be the most important challenge for the sport shoe researchers and manufacturers for the near future.

Okay, if you are thinking of buying a pair of new kicks, do it now, online.

Why? Basically the recent currancy exchange rate btw the US and Canadian dollars kept fluctuating not far from 1:1. HOWEVER, most of the stuff selling here are not marked down according to that. No, not yet. To give an example, the AJ XXI at most retail stores here in Canada is priced at $279, but $175 down there in the states. My recent buy, the AJ XIV low, was marked down from $209 to $179 at SportChek. Not bad, eh? BUT, hold a sec, check the price in US..Guess what, ahm...$99....

Yeah including the shipping fee you could still save more than 60 bucks on average by ordering them online from US. So, I mean, why not?

Here are some websites at which you could find the good deals (well, I'm pretty sure they're selling authentic stuff):

Eastbay, Foot Locker, Champs (pretty much the same as FL), Pick Your Shoes, Finish Line.

B-to-C era is coming..

Ken Link designed the Lebron IV as he has done for Lebron II, III, and Zoom Kobe I. I personally feel this piece has a pretty old class looking like the II - simple flow of lines plus neat colors. In terms of tech, IV seems like a combo of Free, Zoom and Foamposite. No certain product details are available so far, so couldn't comment much about it yet.

adidas introduced the World's first intelligent basketball shoe - adidas_1 Basketball recently. Like Nike announced their Shox BB4 basketball shoes with R4 running shoes, adidas eventually applied their running-based tech onto basketball shoes.... that is really DISAPPOINTING.

The adidas_1 technology senses your movements and cushioning needs from your first step, then adjusts the cushioning to suit your needs and the conditions. EX: If you are running on concrete, the first step you make, the computer reads the forces, then adjusts the cushioning to suit. So by your second step it is adjusted to meet the needs of concrete. If you then switch to trail, your first step on trail will be different, and the computer will sense that and adjust the cushion to suit by your second step! That is how it works. And the technology is ONLY IN THE HEEL! When you cut in basketball, you cut on your toes, not on your heel. Not only do you cut on your toes, the cutting movement is only once at a time! Think about it, when do you repeatedly cut? NEVER! You cut, then you run, then you cut again. So what adidas is claiming is not true.

The only continuous movement in basketball is running. That is the only movement that is repeated at one time. When do you repeatedly jump in one spot? Maybe on a rebound, but that is the point; once you jump and the computer adjusts the cushioning for jumping, you are already starting to run. And cutting doesn't apply, because you cut on your toes. If they are saying that the computer stores all your info and then finds the optimum HEEL cushioning for a specific player, then what is the difference between putting zoom air in a shoe for guards, or putting encapsulated air in a shoe for centers? To me it is bogus. It ONLY applys to running, because the technology is in the HEEL and running is the only continuous/ repeated movement at one time.

As well for the design: how could you design one shoe for 5 positions? A guard shoe should be light and sleak looking, and a "bigs" shoes should be more supportive. To me that shoe is a "Bigs" shoe. It is not "slim" enough for a guard. Look what it has to compete against; Jordans, Flight VC, and so on, and to me it doesn't.

So to me, great technology for RUNNING. Absolutely amazing for RUNNING. But it doesn't apply to b-ball, or any court sport for that matter.

Seriously, the reconstructed AJ site is WICKED !!!

As the all-star game approaching, Nike renovated their B-ball and AJ sites. The spotlights are pretty much put onto the Kobe I (eventually~~) and AJ XXI. I have to say I LOVE THE XXI. imo, this is exactly what an AJ should look like. The detailed tech info will be posted on the official site on the 18th. cannot wait at all. Other than the pad equiped on the XX, XXI has some tricks at the side of its midsole i guess.

Click the following pix to access these two sites, and get ready to be amazed! ;)