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Adidas develops new technology that uses athlete data

20 Oct '20

3 min read

Pic: Adidas

Adidas has developed a new technology - Strung - the first textile technology that transforms athlete data into dynamic performance material. The company says it wants this to be the most data-informed textile, based on foot anatomy and athlete movement. The first shoe being made using the new technology is expected to be available by late 2021/early 2022.

The new textile innovation changes footwear is created. Every thread in Strung is individually selected and data-mapped for a seamless, lightweight fit, the company says. It has designed the first concept, Futurecraft.Strung, to illustrate Strung’s capability. It combines high-res creation technologies Adidas 4D and Strung, as the industry’s first fully athlete data-coded shoe.

“Futurecraft is our incubator for innovations and technologies designed to shape the future of sport, a platform to develop “what’s next” and solving issues facing athletes, sports and the world at large,” the company says.

“Our material tech challenge was very clear - we wanted to make something where we could place the yarns in any direction, to go beyond what existing textile creation methods are capable of. Getting that base Strung textile to work and function as we want is and will continue be a challenge. Strung is not knitting and it’s not weaving: it hasn’t existed before,” the company says.

The company has created the first-of-its-kind concept shoe to provide a new experience of short-distance training runs at 5m/s or faster. Two adidas runners were identified as experts in this run and provided both motion capture and ongoing feedback to support development. The upper has a lightweight cocooned feel and fit, locking the heel to prevent slip, with stiffer and stronger red threads placed at the midfoot, toe-box, and heel (where the foot needs support), and suppler yellow threads in the forefoot for flexibility. These threads blend each of those features together within the material to provide precise fit and support through the gait cycle.

The midsole is the company’s most radical Adidas 4D lattice design to date - featuring a new shape to cater for forefoot strikers. The heel has been minimised to remove weight and the rubber outsole is specifically engineered to provide traction just where needed, resulting in an extremely minimalist midsole.

“Probably the most exciting thing about Strung is that we’re still in the early stages of developing it – the ongoing testing will be fundamental to what we do next, but more important than that is the trajectory of consumers and athletes – what do they want next and how are their needs changing?” the company says and adds “Strung is a milestone that has the potential to transform the way athletes work with designers, engineers and sports scientists. The ultimate aim is for it to be a cross-category platform that serves multiple sports. We’ve started with running but that’s just the beginning. We want this to be the most data-informed textile (based on foot anatomy and athlete movement), and we’re planning to make the first shoe available late 2021/early 2022.”

Technology can achieve wonderful things, but it can only achieve the right things if it’s informed by human behaviour, it says. “It is this open approach that has guided us on the Strung journey so far, and it is this same approach that we believe will help us on the road ahead.”

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (SV)

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