In th 1960 Olympics Abebe Bikila from Ethiopia undertook the marathon, which he subsequently won. You will notice that there is something significantly different about Abebe, he is running barefoot.

Nike has taken a while to catch up with the concept but the group of their employees charged with the responsibility of thinking laterally have at cottoned onto the idea. Of course in these days of discarded hypodermic syringes and broken bottles you would not want to actually running nude, well not in the foot department anyway. Accordingly Nike are releasing a new range of running shoe called "Nike Free".

Vin Lananna, who was then the track coach at Stanford University, had decided that it was important for his runners to spend some time running barefoot on grass to strengthen their feet and ankles, presumably after the aforemention discarded syringes had been removed. This captivated the imagination of the innovators at Nike and like true innovators it caused them to ask a seemly stupid question, "What about a running shoe for barefoot runners?"

Some videotaping of barefoot runners with high-speed cameras to capture their movements, reflective markers attached to their joints to allow easy calculation of joint angles during stride, and wafer-thin pressure sensors attached to the bottoms of their feet to measure their impact with the earth and Bingo! A running shoe that provides the benefits of barefoot running.

Jeff Pisciotta, a senior researcher at Nike's Sports Research Lab and practitioner of the split infinitive says

There was a very unique pressure pattern that came from running on grass. Everything was happening at the ankle and the foot, that's where we saw the changes. There was a much greater range of motion at the ankle and foot as well. It was like an airplane coming in for a smooth landing -- they were using the whole foot, very naturally.

Well they would be wouldn't they? They were running barefoot afterall.

This whole new approach to shoe design was a big step for Nike (err sorry about that) and they may be brave but not quite as brave as they could be. The new shoe is Nike Free 5.0 which is half way between there fully supportive shoe and barefoot.

So which type of Nike Runner will The Green Man be buying? The Green Man is built for comfort not for speed, he pays $15 for his runners at K-Mart. It is a market Nike is yet to tap into.

via Wired