When you see three stripes on the side of a shoe, you automatically know the brand. Luckily, the makers of Adidas don’t need to put the name on the shoe, because many people who wear Adidas shoes don’t speak English. Adidas has store locations in more than 30 countries around the world, and they sell shoes specifically designed for a wide variety of sports and activities. Whether you’re into soccer, running, basketball, tennis, golf, football, or wrestling, Adidas has a selection of shoes fit for every motion these athletes may need. They also carry shoes for less traditional sports such as BMX (extreme biking), and adventure shoes (for hiking and water activities), as well as sandals to cool down in.
Adidas shoes have changed over the years, despite the company’s long history of supplying athletes with top quality footwear. Depending on the unique shape and chemistry of your feet, you can get shoes that emphasize specific comforts and features. For every activity, however, your feet are constantly moving – that means that 26 bones, 19 muscles, 33 joints, 107 ligaments, and many tiny tendons (per foot!) have to work together to make the rest of your body go up, down, sideways, and every other way. When you’re running, for example, the pressure on your feet can exceed four times your body weight.
The designers at Adidas shoes have developed some exclusive shoe technologies for different kinds of Adidas shoes. First, the athletic shoes come with different degrees of a feature called a3, which minimizes the strike impact on your foot and absorbs the landing shock – which is especially important for jumping in basketball, for example. Next, adiprene technology protects the heel with an elastic material that also absorbs impact forces and cushions. For the forefoot, adiprene+ provides cushioning and toe propulsion. Also, the shoes have a torsion feature, which allows the toe and heel to move independently, and the midfoot to flex naturally so as to avoid injury. The best way to figure out which shoe best fits your foot, of course, is to try it out, keeping these features in mind.
If you go to the Adidas Web site (www.adidas.com), you will see all their newest and upcoming shoes. In December 2004, the company plans to release an athletic shoe called Adidas 1, marketed as “the first shoe that thinks for itself.” The Adidas 1 has its own reflexes to respond to the athlete’s movements and environment. On the bottom of the shoe, a magnetic sensor system measures the compression in the heel up to 0.1 mm, taking 1,000 readings per second. The sensor sends this information to the processor, which acts like the brain of the shoe and decides whether the compression lies within the ideal zone. The brain then sends a message to the muscle of the shoe — a motor-driven cable system — which continuously re-forms the shoe to maintain ideal compression. Now, if only the shoe’s brain could plan out your next play....
Also on the Adidas Web site, you can look for retail stores near your area if you want to check out the shoes in person. If you’re looking for specific products, the Web site can also help you with its guided product search. Sometimes they have sales, as well, and you can go right to the sale area if you want. Price-wise, Adidas athletic shoes range from the $40s to more than $100, but if you look around and compare, they seem to run at similar prices as other brands. Besides athletic shoes, Adidas also sells other accessories including shirts, shorts, hats, backpacks, and sunglasses.
By Lisa Zyga