Lone Star Spike

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19 August 2008

Adidas

Germany

Health and Fitness

Sporting Goods

"Leveraging new innovations from the plastics industry, adidas applied materials only previously used in the automotive and aerospace industries to design a carbon nanotubes reinforced full-length plate (nanoplate). This thinner and stronger one piece, full-length plate provides Wariner more stability, comfort, better torsion, safety and increased flexibility while minimizing the energy loss. Mechanical and chemical bonds with the microscopically tiny nanotubes increase the structural integrity and durability of the plate, allowing adidas to build one continual flexible piece as opposed to the previous three-piece design, which included metal screw-in spikes and multiple fold points adhered together by cement. The new full-length plate measures about 1/3 the thickness of Jeremy’s previous spike and weighs 50 percent less, making it the lightest spike ever created by adidas. With less material between his foot and the track, the new plate allows Jeremy’s feet to be closer to the ground, therefore promoting more natural movement of the foot. The material’s defining physical properties result in increased flexibility, torsion and less energy loss as Jeremy’s foot comes off the track."

"While most of the world's track stars will be wearing customized shoes and spikes in Beijing, Wariner—who runs the 400m in 43.45 seconds—will be wearing some of the lightest shoes around, inset with asymmetrical spikes (a first for a 400m shoe) extruding from a carbon-nanotube plate. The asymmetrical spikes compress the track, rather than dig into it, resulting in a more efficient stride. Adidas is using the spikes' design as the basis for new versions of the (spike-free) soles of its AdiStar and Bounce shoes."

Carbon nanotube

Hardness and strength

Surface bound particles

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