adidas’ adiZero Technology – Part 1 (Soccer)

In 2004, Adidas released the first version of its F50 shoe line.  F50 is short for Football 50 marking the 50 year anniversary of when the West German national team won the World Cup in 1954.¹ 

The adiZero product line has the lightest boots in the market, the lightest being the F50 Prime with the Sprint Skin upper at 5.1 oz (the leather upper weighs in at 6.0 oz).  Even the stud configuration was redesigned to more efficiently transfer a player’s energy while moving on the field and thus help endurance.

Perhaps the coolest and most innovative version of the adiZero line to come into the market is the new adiZero F50 miCoach which brings intelligence to a soccer shoe for the first time. 

  

The miCoach is a removable chip that is attached to a port on the bottom of the shoe and gathers data about the players' in game performance including recording stride rates, distances, average speed and sprint times.  The information from the chip can then be uploaded to a computer or mobile device via USB or WiFi connection to analyze the data.²  That’s pretty high-tech!  I wonder if teams are now going to need data analysts who can quickly gather and analyze players’ data (just kidding but you never know).  They can then make tactical or formation changes at halftime or even on the fly to improve efficiency or try to preserve a player’s endurance throughout a game.  Teams may also make changes to maximize a player’s performance in a game.  I’m not sure if it would be possible for the miCoach to upload data in real time at this point (maybe that will be included in the miCoach v2 chip), but I can see teams attempting to set up wireless hotspots on their benches in attempts to download data and use any opportunity available to gain an advantage over their opponents.  Before long you’ll see managers sitting on the benches with laptops or holding mobile devices!  Now that would be crazy!

It’s the start of a new evolution in shoe design technology and it will be interesting to see what Adidas’ competitors introduce into the market to counter the miCoach technology. 

See video from the Adidas News Stream below:

References
1. Adidas F50 Wikipedia article
2. Soccer Cleat Breakthroughs – How adidas’ Innovations are Leading the Industry

3. Photos courtesy of gizmag - http://www.gizmag.com/adidas-adizero-f50-football-boot/20030/