|
|
Wednesday, September 20
Jones has some new slippers for Sydney
Associated Press
SYDNEY, Australia -- If this is Marion Jones' Olympic fairy
tale, the slippers are ready.
|  | | Marion Jones isn't sure she'll wear Nike's new clear plastic sprinting shoe, but she has a pair nonetheless. |
Not glass exactly, but clear, extremely expensive plastic.
Actually, they're just half-shoes. No heel. Jones doesn't need one
because her heels never touch the ground when she's sprinting.
It is touted as the lightest spiked track shoe ever -- 3½ ounces
-- and the first without a heel.
The shoe was developed by Tobie Hatfield and Kevin Hoffer, the
same Nike team that came up with shoes covered with shimmering
droplets of 24-carat gold that Michael Johnson will wear in his
Sydney races.
Jones' shoes are the product of nearly three years of research
and design that began when Hatfield and Hoffer asked Jones what
color of shoe she wanted for the Olympics.
"She goes 'Can you make them clear?"' Hatfield said. "We
looked at each other and said 'OK.'
"We're in advanced design. We like challenges, and that was
certainly a challenge, so we said `Let's go for it.' "
Since no fabric is clear, the designers turned to a
thermoplastic urethane similar to the material used in the air bags
in soles of the Nike Air models.
The idea of a heel-less design intrigued the duo, so Nike hired
a crew to film Jones' feet in her 100-meter run at the 1998
Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Ore.
"We wanted to see for sure if her heels didn't touch the
track," Hatfield said. "They shot 500 frames per second, and it
was clear, very evident, that at no time did she touch her heel
until after the competition.
"We discussed it with her, along with the clear concept, and
this is what you get."
The shoe is molded perfectly to the size of Jones' foot. That
makes the shoe almost a part of her foot, Hoffer said.
"She has true support in the upper, where a lot of track shoes
don't," he said.
Jones isn't sure she will use them in her Olympic races. She's
trained in them but is a bit nervous about using something so
innovative in such important competition.
"This is the most innovative, most 'out there' spike ever
made," Hatfield said. "We've been doing a lot of testing with
her. She's been doing a lot of working on her technique in her run.
A lot of times the athlete needs to go back to what's comfortable
and what's working for her."
Her backups are a pair of custom-made black models covered with
shiny chrome, the same material that is used on the bumpers of new
cars.
She has said she is optimistic about wearing the new shoe, but
maybe only in a preliminary.
"She is very determined to make it work," Hatfield said.
Don't expect to see the shoe in any store anytime soon. It would
be way too expensive. The two designers say they don't even know
what the prototype cost.
|  | |
ALSO SEE
Let the show begin: Track's ready to roll
|
