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How Adidas Is Changing the Way We Think About Running Shoes

...I not so sure.

 

Was this written by an adi employee??.. what a load of malarky!

 

Craig,

What do you mean? The shoe was created with 'motion study analysis'. 'nuff said ... add, to that the Kayne West endorsement (sorry Kayne, I had to Google your name, no idea) and other fringe celebrity types, then you got a winner, right?

I believe we have had, over the years, discussions about the sneaker industry. There is much less R & D to support the 'science' than we might think or want. It's mostly marketing and hype.

Also Craig, I messaged you to ask what happened to your book. You ignored my question :confused:

 

Simon:

If you carefully note, at the top left of the page, the words "Presented by Adidas" appear, indicating that Adidas paid for this advertisement that is supposed to read as an objective, non-biased article. I agree, the article is a load of BS...not a piece of objectivity in sight!

 

"Look at it, say what it is... Now walk away..."

 

Sales figures are good:
ULTRABOOST SALES NUMBERS SHOW ADIDAS’ SUCCESS IN PERFORMANCE RUNNING

 

and
Adidas Sold 11,000 Pairs of the Ultra Boost Uncaged in One Hour

 

and this:
Adidas Is Selling a Ridiculous Amount of Running Shoes Right Now

 

Cannot agree with you on that one Dieter. Over the many years I have been intimately involved with the R+D side of athletic footwear development, I can guarantee you most companies take this very seriously, spend large amounts of money, and for the most part are reluctant to BS.. not always, not all companies, but mostly. adi has a very strong R+D team with some excellent biomechanics support from the likes of Darren Stefanyshyn and Bertie Krabbe.. these guys take it very seriously. The problem occurs when the marketing boys, as has obviously happened here, get hold of it and BS the crapper out of it. It is very frustrating to those of us who are more interested in the science. adi has made itself look pretty foolish here.
For the record, market acceptance of BOOST has softened considerably.. it is not the solution to all issues and many runners find it too soft. It is the old story.. it does a couple of things very well, but not all things. The secret is to come up with techniques that answer ALL the questions.. all the time..hehe :dizzy:

 

lol ... ok, thanks for the insight

It will be nice to think one shoe can be all things to all people. It can't of course - like no single prescription of eye glasses can satisfy all requirements.

Many years ago a Footwear Rep, with a shiny suit and oily hair, gave a lecture to the Podiatry students - he arrogantly announced his company (Adidas) would put us all out of a job because their tech guys will be able to solve all & every foot problem with their shoe. Left me with an unpleasant taste ... maybe I should get over that. ;-)

 

Well that would turn my stomach too.. I bet that fella no longer works for the company! No one has all the answers.. as evidenced by all the crap the barefoot and minimalist boys sprouted..and a couple still do (let it go fellas, and one girl.. just let it go). Meantime, we plug away to try to figure out how to make running safer and more enjoyable.. footwear probably has about a 10% role to play in this..

 

I agree with Simon (toomoon). Anyone who states he has the one universal footwear solution for all runners is obviously not aware of the fact of the large inter-individual variation in foot and lower extremity structure and function within the human population. This combined with the variation in running ability, running velocity, training vs racing, running terrain, runner's weight make it a certainty that no one running shoe will be best for all runners.

That being said, if shoe research scientists wrote the ads for new running shoes, these ads would be very dry and boring. The people who write the ads for running shoes are very much like politicians: they lie and distort the truth all day in the hopes that ignorant, gullible people will believe their lies and distortions in order to sell more of their "product" (e.g. running shoes or political ideologies).