Basketball Shoe Technology

Overview

When you think about shoes, you most likely do not think of technology. However, technology plays a major role in the basketball shoe market. Designs are focused on providing a lightweight, breathable shoe that offers the cushion and support necessary to prevent injuries while allowing players to perform at a high level.

Purpose

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Research and technology in basketball shoe design serves the purpose of preventing sport injuries, increasing performance and providing maximum comfort. One of the most notable ways basketball shoes prevent injuries is by providing adequate ankle support. High top sneakers offer the best ankle support; these shoes should also lace up to the top of the shoe to help to provide a snug fit. 

Advancements in Technology

Over the years technology in basketball shoes has evolved the look and fit of the basketball shoe industry. Shoe makers like Nike have developed lighter, yet stronger shoes that provide support and breathability. The Nike Zoom Hyperfuse basketball shoe, for example, uses a blend of synthetic leather, mesh and TPU film to keep your feet cool. The shoe's Hyperfuse technology offers a seamless fit due to minimal stitching.

Results

Basketball shoes have evolved from heavy, one-colored, canvas, high top Converse models to lightweight, synthetic sneakers in a variety of styles. Technology in shoe cushioning and durability paved the wave for big companies to sell their shoes at higher prices, while endorsements from NBA stars have pushed shoe prices even higher. The result is a highly-competitive industry where new technology is highly valued.

Beyond Technology

As advanced as the technology in the shoe industry is, basketball players will still wear their shoes out in a considerable amount of time. As shoes become worn, the material stretches, placing the ankle and foot at risk for injury. The soles of the shoe may also deform or compress, putting more stress on bones and joints when landing. For this reason, Michael Lowe, DPM, team podiatrist of the NBA's Utah Jazz, recommends that basketball shoes be changed once per month during the season. In fact, the American Academy of Podiatric Sport Medicine reports that many NBA players replace their basketball shoes about every seven to 10 days.

Style

With the emergence of new materials, basketball shoe styles have been forced to change over the years. Shoe makers have been put to the task to be innovative with their designs. As a result, shoes have been adorned side zippers, Velcro straps, removable supportive sides, shiny design and the option to design your own shoe.

Nike Flywire: Revolutionary of Technology

Imagine a paper-thin shoe, no more than two microns thick, whose only support comes from threads. This is Flywire. A revolutionary technology, its high-strength threads work like cables on a suspension bridge with support engineered precisely where a foot needs it. Flywire allowed Nike to make its lightest and strongest footwear ever, transforming how footwear is engineered by reducing the amount of material required for the upper of a shoe to the bare minimum. Thanks to this innovation, track spikes with Flywire are now under 100g – a weight never before achieved – without compromising on durability or integrity and support.

Six and a half years ago all Flywire footwear’s creator Jay Meschter, Innovation Director of Nike’s Innovation Kitchen, had was a shoe last, the mold from which shoes are built, with pins and string placed only at key points where the foot requires support. The model looked like 1970s string art but held an uncharted realm of possibility. This single product concept held the potential to revolutionize the way footwear is constructed.

Creating a skeleton or cradle with engineered fibers strategically placed to hold the foot in place overturns the very assumptions that go into creating performance footwear - add more to a shoe to get more support, The Innovation Kitchen knew the possibilities the product held, but there was no easy or cost effective way to deliver the innovation into product. The project went into hibernation until Jay and his team could find the machinery and processes capable of delivering the technology to product.

A couple years later in Nike’s sample room Jay found the answer right before his eyes in a simple embroidery machine. Embroidery was the way to engineer Flywire. In theory the machine’s needle can pick up and move in any direction, creating the long stitches the new technology required. Of course it wasn’t that simple. The machine had to be broken and reprogrammed to deliver the engineering Jay was thinking about.

Stitching straight across the upper (rather than using a large jump stitch) would have made something no more effective than decoration on the side of the shoe. Creating a long stitch means the structure comes entirely from the thread. With its radical reduction of weight, Flywire also spells the end of using layers of material to create support, all of which adds weight and decreases flexibility.

Early on in the process, the design team started working with biomechanics experts in the Nike Sports Research Lab (NSRL). With duct tape in hand, they taped up designers’ feet. NSRL researcher Jeff Pisciotta had long been fascinated by the idea of creating an extra ligament that would facilitate movement. Ligaments guide joints in the right direction. “We were wrapping under the foot up to the heel with the tape to provide lateral stability. Through that and a bit of anatomy we were able to position the Flywire fibers in the right places,” he explains.

Flywire Basketball Shoes

Nike Zoom Hyperdunk 2010

Nike Zoom Hyperize

Adizero: The Lightest Basketball Shoes

Those lunatics from Adidas have done it again. Not content with cornering the market on sports-clothing, they have gone and created a pair of basketball shoes which are so light that a gust of wind may lift them towards the heavens. If you love playing barefoot, or require the maneuverability that only the world’s finest shoes can produce, then you will fall in love with these shoes. These babies are called the Adizero Crazy Lights and at 277 grams in total, they weigh less than an apple, or a handful of grapes.

At this weight though, it may be possible to consider these shoes as safety boots. Despite the thinness of the material, the shoe itself has the cushioning needed to create a soft impact after an earth-shattering dunk and the type of traction that is required to keep feet firmly on the ground after skidding for a foul ball. The Adizero contains space-age technology applied to your very feet! Technology such as the SprintWeb, a mesh which covers the front of the shoe providing maximum comfort and breathing room for your trapped toes; the bottom of the shoes is coated in three different tread patterns which ‘activate’ according to your level of activity; finally the SprintFrame on the sole of the shoe allows you to turn on a dime without affecting movement.

We assume that the true test of these basketball shoes would be to play an actual game of hoops, yet sadly the £150 price range pushed us out of the running to train in this sports-ready safety footwear. They will be released to the eager public during the month of June and there are four nifty colours to pick from. Basketball shoes of the future indeed, the Adizero Crazy Lights may just represent a true turning point in one of the world’s most popular ball games.

Adizero Basketball Shoes

                                                Adidas Adizero Crazy Light

Adidas Adizero Rose 1.5