Called the Sole for obvious reasons, the minimal shoe is designed to slip onto Össur’s Flex-Run prosthetic blades which are used by competitive athletes, including triathlete Sarah Reinertsen who helped Nike co-develop the product. Like a full shoe, the Sole is composed of an outsole, midsole, and a specially designed material called Aeroply which allows the sole to grip the carbon fibre of the prosthetic blade while the athlete is running.
Not only is the Sole designed to make running with a prosthetic limb more comfortable, but thanks to Nike’s expertise in this field ,the extra engineered grip will most certainly improve their performance on the track. And the Sole is available now, presumably from prosthetists’ offices who also carry Össur’s Flex-Run blades. [designboom]
Andrew
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 9:15 AMNice feel good clip to start the morning with. Cheers.
Sean
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 9:19 AMThis is idiotic. Why would a flexible prosthetic need cushioning? If it needs grip, dip the end in plasticote
Deb
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 9:44 AMWhat a waste of time to go and dip the end in something because you’d have to put a lot more effort than just dipping it to get a good tread pattern and when it starts wearing out, you have to go scrape the rest of the plastic off and then dip it again. Also the plastic may either not stick to the carbon fiber well or not have good tread on whatever surface, it would be hard for ONE plastic coat to have both properties.
And with prosthetics, I imagine the more cushioning the better. At the end of the day it has to be attached to a part of your body whose purpose has been dramatically changed.
Josh
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 10:05 AMDid Dr. Nakamats pathe the way for Nike with his Pyonpyon or “flying shoes”? http://www.nakamats.net/pyon2.html
Brian
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 2:28 PMMight work on a track, but mine slipped off while running up and down hills on the street. I had to modify it to keep it from falling off. The tread near the tip was gone after about 30 miles and after about 150 miles it wore down through the plastic which broke the thing.