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New grass court shoe from adidas help Wimbledon's seeds

19 Jun '09

5 min read

Ian Ritchie, Chief Executive of the All England Club, goes on to explain: "The quality of the grass is key to Wimbledon and we have always looked for new ways to keep the courts in the finest possible condition. Most damage to the court surface is caused by the players' shoes and with one eye on the Olympics 2012, which will follow relatively soon after The Championships in that year, we wanted to see if we could develop a more grass-friendly sole.

With the help of adidas we have created a new grass court outsole, which we have made available without charge to all other tennis manufacturers for grass court use, that is proven to reduce grass wear and tear while also providing the world's top players with superb grip and comfort."

Commissioned by AELTC, the STRI testing was conducted on two separate occasions. The first took place at the STRI headquarters in Yorkshire where five adidas outsoles underwent Toe Drag, Toe Push-Off and Rotational Damage tests. After these tests one outsole stood out as causing the least damage to the grass while also maintaining its grip properties.

A second series of tests, which involved running, stopping and turning, were conducted by the STRI on No.1 Court at Wimbledon with two players that varied in weight and shoe size. A one-off shoe-dragging test was also conducted on the Wimbledon No.1 Court which found that damage cause by the two shoes varied with the old shoe appearing to cause more severe damage.

Dr. Andy Newell, Head of Turfgrass Biology and Environment from the STRI says, “The new design flattened and bruised the grass however the old outsole caused the grass to tear. The considered view of those involved in the testing was that the potential for recovery appeared greater where damage was caused with the new CC Feather IV Grass shoe “.

The STRI went on to report that players indicated “on worn and dry baselines, the grip from the new shoes was markedly superior to that provided by the old shoes. They felt that the risk of slipping in this area was much greater with the old shoe.” The STRI report concluded, “It is possible, therefore, that the benefits of the new shoe design to the players would increase as courts become more worn during The Championships.”

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