Nike'S Innovative L Concept Delivers "Natural Rhythm" Shoes.

The basis of "P > < strong >" "natural rhythm" < < /strong > < /p >

Data from the Nike P sports research laboratory show that an adult has 206 bones, 52 of which are on both feet. Therefore, people's feet should be very flexible and delicate.

When running barefoot, people rely more on the flexibility of their toes to control their strength, and their ankles are more flexible.

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< p > "we combine the natural movement of the body in motion with the existing dynamics research, and design according to this natural rhythm." natural rhythm "comes from this.

Nike footwear innovation director Ernest Kim (Ernest Kim) said.

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< p > Huang Xiangyan, senior communications director of Nike Greater China, said that the challenge comes first from the understanding of the basic attributes and characteristics of sports. "Running, football, basketball and other sports are all different. Understanding these helps our products not only affect people's sports while supporting people's sports," he said.

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< p > the first thing Nike did was the motion capture test.

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P, using high-speed cameras, Nike tried to analyze the difference between athletes running barefoot on the grass and running in traditional running shoes.

By observing the marks of the buttocks, knees, ankles and plantes of the athletes, the researchers found that the toe of the athlete's feet was easier to bend, stretch and clamp when running barefoot, and the amplitude of ankle movements was greater, while the performance of traditional running shoes was far less flexible.

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< p > Kim also said that the related shooting was very meticulous, and even could see that male athletes and female athletes had different foot movements during running, and straight line running was not only vertical movement, but also lateral, bending and lateral rolling.

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< p > in addition to the different trajectory, barefoot and shoe running have different pressure on foot.

By measuring the pressure of the sole on the sole of the tester, Nike collected and plotted the foot pressure distribution map during the running of the athlete, marking the pressure greater part and the pressure pmitted in the footstep muscle as red and blue, which is the basis for more vibration absorption design of the sole and heel.

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< p > < strong > "innovative kitchen" < /strong > /p >

< p > < strong > the new concept has, where is the carrier? < /strong > /p >

P Innovation, founded in 2001, is not a real kitchen. It is full of design sketches of sports shoes. It is the design and research center of Nike. It is also known as "Kitchen".

This is the birth of all the most eye-catching designs in the history of Nike.

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At P's headquarters in Nike, Oregon, the innovative kitchen and sports research laboratory are closely linked. More than 20 senior designers of the former are inspired by the appearance of sports cars and furniture, and the most advanced sneakers are designed. The latter provides data support for innovative kitchens through collaborative testing with athletes.

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< p > designer Toby Hatfield (Tobie Hatfield) and his team are working in the innovative kitchen. Their task is a little arduous: pforming the research results of Nike sports research laboratory into practice, designing shoes that conform to the concept of "natural rhythm".

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P recalled the initial stage of research and development, Hatfield said, compared with the black and white empirical experiments, design work is more like a gray area. This intuition led thinking will make some seemingly random information intertwined.

Fortunately, there were laboratory motion capture and pressure maps, which made him realize that "attention should be focused on the bottom of shoes".

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< p > traditional sports shoes are concentrated in a smaller area because of the need to press the sole area of the foot, so the sole is often designed to be flat.

But what Nike wants to do is the opposite. Hatfield wants to simulate the barefoot movement mode, so that the pressure can be evenly distributed to the sole, heel, thumb, metatarsal area and so on.

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< p > How can the sole have flexibility and integrity at the same time? He thinks of the principle of ice making grid: dividing solid ice into homogeneous blocks, and the grid becomes easy to bend.

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Less than P, Nike made bold innovations in shoe cutting.

Rob Dolan, senior design director of Nike running shoes, said: "according to the results of experimental data, we use laser lasers to determine where the groove needs to be cut and the depth of cut is very precise," Rob Dolan said.

Thus, a soles that can follow the natural movement of feet are born.

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< p > this is the technology of Nike Free soles which came out in 2004, which has materialized the idea of "natural rhythm".

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< p > < strong > "natural rhythm" tomorrow, < /strong > /p >

< p > Nike did not stop in 2004.

In the past 10 years, improvement has been continuing.

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< p > Nike's designers divide the Nike Free into layers according to the simulation of barefoot flexibility. 0 represents absolute barefoot running, and 10 is the flexibility of standard running shoes.

Nike Free 5, which was first launched in 2004, is in the middle level, and Nike has since then developed 3 and 4 other running shoes.

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Less than P, Nike's soles cutting technology has been constantly changing.

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< p > initially, some larger grooves could be directly molded into the soles, but with the advent of a series of new Nike Free, a process known as "hot cutting" began to be used to cut the smallest grooves.

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< p > when the sole becomes rich and optional, Nike designers are beginning to consider a new problem, namely, how to find the corresponding shoe upper technology at different levels of soles.

As Huang Xiangyan told the first financial daily, the design of shoe sole and vamp is inseparable. If these Nike Free shoes soles are very flexible, their shoes can not be too rigid. "The knowledge in this area is relatively large, and we are committed to it."

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< p > summer 2013, Nike Free Flyknit was born.

Nike Free soles with Flyknit technology, to maximize the "natural rhythm" characteristics.

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< p > "based on our deep exploration of the potential limits of human beings, and the inspiration from athletes and the speed of technological innovation, it is indeed amazing and endless to look forward to what may happen in the future."

Kim said.

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