Spira is a little shoe company that has started quite a stir in
the
running world. Note the following:
That principal was also
challenged yesterday, it emerged, in El Paso,
Texas, where a footwear company
is suing the International
Association of Athletics Federations and USA Track
and Field. Spira
Footwear claim that technological innovations have caused
their
running shoes to be banned. They allege that sport rules
banning
assisted devices violate US laws on restraint of trade
and
monopolistic practices. They say athletics' rules prevent
their
patented WaveSpring technology from gaining acceptance. The
company
say seven runners will be wearing its shoes at the Boston
Marathon
next Monday.
The IAAF is already embroiled in
controversy over the use of a carbon fibre
prosthetic used by South African
Paralympic gold medallist Oscar Pistorius,
the so-called "fastest man on no
legs". They expect to rule out the double
amputee's spring legs which
single-amputee rivals believe give him an unfair
advantage.
==================
See below:
_http://www.spirafootwear.com/_ (
http://www.spirafootwear.com/)
Spira's™ patented
WaveSpring™ technology may be the most significant
advancement ever achieved
in the footwear industry.*
WaveSpring™ returns energy with every
step.
Ray Fredericksen, president of Sports Biomechanics, Inc.
compares
typical midsole materials found in many athletic shoes to running
in
sand. While initially perceived as soft and comfortable, these
shoes
require the wearer to exert greater effort. Muscles must work
harder,
causing fatigue and increasing the risk of injury.
Unlike
traditional shoe midsoles made primarily of foams, rubber
compounds, or
polymers, WaveSpring™ technology stores and disburses
energy with every step.
Testing performed by an independent source
reports that 87% - 96% of the
energy is returned from the
WaveSpring™. This is the highest energy return
score for any midsole
material ever tested.**
WaveSpring™ is light and
compact.
The WaveSpring™ is laterally stable, lightweight, compact, and
can
easily fit into a typical shoe midsole. The technology is in the
heel
and forefoot of the shoe. As such, it has the appearance of a
normal
shoe. Looking from the outside no one will know you have a spring
in
your step but you!
WaveSpring™ technology will not break
down.
Traditional midsole materials work through compression and
often
breakdown quickly. The WaveSpring™ is mechanical. The spring
will
outlast the shoe. The wearer will have a "new shoe" feel from
the
first day it is worn to the last!
"Unlike rubbers and polymers,
the springs have an almost infinite
fatigue life. The shoe will fall apart
before the spring performance
degrades."
Popular Mechanics
magazine
Shoe Technology Review, July 2003
"I feel it is the first
technological advance that has been truly
meaningful in the shoe industry in
many years."
Donald A. Chu Ph.D., PT, ATC CSCS
Director, Athletic Training
& Rehabilitation
Stanford University
*Patented and patents
pending.
**Sports Biomechanics, Inc., Michigan State University, May
2001
===================
But so would Spira, Krafsur's shoe company.
"Track and field has always
embraced innovation," Krafsur said
recently . "We're jumping with fiberglass
poles, not bamboo. We run
on very springy tracks, not cinders. We run in very
sophisticated
racing spikes as opposed to leather straps like 'Chariots of
Fire.' "
Why can't we compete, Krafsur wonders, with springs in our
shoes?
Banned in races
As North Jersey runners descend upon Long
Branch for the New Jersey
Marathon this morning, Krafsur is busy waging war
with the
International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) and
USA
Track and Field (USATF). Both organizations prohibit runners
from
competing in shoes with springs.
Any runner who wins a race
governed by either organization's
guidelines while wearing Spira running
shoes is subject to
disqualification.
"I have read about the shoe, but
till now it has not come up with
regard to our New Jersey Marathon," race
director Art Castellano
wrote in an e-mail. "Since we are not a [money]
marathon, it may not
be a factor, but if the USATF is opposed to it and we
are under the
auspices of that organization, we are also opposed to this shoe
at
this time."
Other race directors echo that opinion. So Krafsur, a
45-year-old
lawyer with a size-9 foot, decided it was time to fire back.
Earlier
this month, he filed an antitrust lawsuit in U.S. District
Court,
suing the IAAF and USATF for $10 million. He believes their
policies
governing shoes with spring technologies have fostered a
"restraint
of competition." According to the lawsuit, "the concern by
athletes
is so great that most elite runners are unwilling to race in
Spira
footwear."
Yet Spira success stories are beginning to pop up at
marathons across
the country. Keith Pierce, a distance runner from Texas, won
the
Cowtown Marathon in February while wearing the shoes. Oleg
Strijakov,
a 43-year-old Russian who lives in Florida, captured the
Boston
Marathon's Masters division crown (for runners age 40 and over) in
a
pair of Spiras....
Foot Solutions, a foot-care company that has
locations in Ramsey and
Caldwell, is one of the few places where you can find
Spira shoes in
New Jersey. Louise Van Osten, owner of the Ramsey franchise,
said the
shoe reduces impact between your foot and the ground by 85
percent.
"Basically what it does is it helps your joints, no matter what
age
they are," Van Osten said. "Arthritis, lower back pain ... having
that
reduction of impact between you and the ground really helps you
become and
stay more active."
The simplest of questions is the one Krafsur cannot
answer: Do his
shoes make you faster?
"I don't know if they make you
faster or not," Krafsur said. "What I
can tell you, and I'm very confident in
saying this, when you finish
the race, there's going to be less stress on
your body. The comment
that I've received from several people is, 'For the
first time in 50
marathons, I'm able to walk the next day.'
"
======================
Inform the buying public that using your
product would be cheating.
That it's banned. Not allowed.
_http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=2039579_
(
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=2039579)
What
would seem like a hindrance could actually lead to a break for a
budding
brand.
In the most famous case, Nike's first pair of Air Jordans was
banned
by the NBA because of discrepancies with the league's uniform
rules.
The shoe's namesake, Michael Jordan, wore the red shoes anyway.
Nike
paid the fines. And sales took off....
But that's exactly what
the former attorney and aerospace engineer
have done. Their shoes have a
patented spring technology that claims
to reduce the impact on a runner's
feet, which leads to easier
recovery and less overall exertion. It's all good
for the runner,
unless he or she is participating in an event sanctioned by
USA Track
& Field or the International Association of Athletics
Federations.
Because the shoes provide an energy return and use springs, they
are
specifically banned by those organizations. So any runner in
Monday's
Boston Marathon crossing the finish line in Spira shoes risks
being
disqualified.
Given the sheer number of people in the race,
thousands who qualified
and hundreds more, called bandits, running without a
number, it's
highly doubtful that anyone other than elite runners would be
caught.
"We can't track everything," said Steve Vaitones, referee for
the
Boston Marathon. "Whether it's a pair of shoes or if it's
someone
giving a runner a bottle with some banned substance in it."
As
long as cheating isn't being done by the elite runners, officials
at the
Boston Marathon aren't expected to do much about it. All of
the elite runners
have shoe contracts and the Krafsurs have yet to
dare offer an elite runner a
sponsorship deal lucrative enough to be
worth a disqualification.
The
ban has created some buzz for Spira. The shoes recently appeared
on the
morning shows on ABC, NBC and Fox.
But Andy Krafsur, chief executive of
the company, doesn't necessarily
want to embrace the outlaw role forever.
He's already had
conversations with USATF officials, who so far have refused
to make
any changes to its rules.
"The rule is outdated," Krafsur
said. "If you go back and [look
through] history, all new technology was
banned -- from the oversized
tennis racket to the aluminum bat to the metal
driver."
Krafsur said his shoes don't make a runner faster since the
shoe
doesn't provide more energy than a runner puts into each step.
The
design of the shoes, he said, simply allows the runner to recover
more
quickly.
Vaitones doesn't buy that. He said Spira shoes are
performance
enhancers.
"If you recover faster that means you can run
more easily, which
means that over time you can run faster and farther,"
Vaitones
said. "Steroids don't allow you to see the baseball better, but
if
you hit it, it might go 20 to 30 feet more, which could be
the
difference between a home run and an out."
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