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words // Zac Dubasik
images // Jotham Porzio & US10
When adidas announced their newest running technology, Boost, they made quite a claim. That it would “Change Running Forever.”
Only time will tell if that plays out to be accurate, but you might be wondering just what makes Boost so special, and how exactly it could change the running world.
Here are just five things that set the Boost apart, as explained by adidas Head of Design for Sport Performance, James Carnes.
1. How it's different:
Traditional shoes using a foam-based cushioning utilize one large piece of foam. The Boost platform has taken an entirely different approach - individual capsules.
"These little capsules are molded together, and they retain their normal properties better than any material out there," explains Carnes. "They're able to absorb energy, and then unleash that energy at a consistent rate, over and over."
2. Responsiveness:
EVA might be the most well-known foam that's used in footwear, but it isn't the most advanced. Companies have been improving on it for years, and adidas claims that Boost is not only better than EVA, but even the best of the competition.
"We checked all of the latest technologies and foam-based materials on the market from every competitor right now, and it’s superior to all of them," says Carnes.
3. Color:
Hopefully you like the Boost's white midsole, because that's going to be your only option for the foreseeable future.
"The foam itself is actually rare enough – there’s not enough of it on the planet – and you can basically only get as much as we’re producing," reveals Carnes. "And right now, white is the best color to produce it in. So, the foam itself wlll be the same color indefinitely, but we really just wanted to highlight the foam and the upper separately."
4. Longevity:
There's no reason to beat around the bush. Lunar foam didn't last too long. Sure, it felt great at first, but it quickly broke down, and became exceptionally unspectacular. Not so with Boost, claims adidas.
“It never stops,” says Carnes. “From the very first step, to a thousand steps later, or the first kilometer you run, until 500 killometers later, you have exactly the same properties coming out of those energy capsules, as from the very beginning.”
5. Temperature:
If you’ve spent any time running outdoors in the winter, you may have experienced a firmer ride from your shoes than you were used to in warmer weather.
“If you’re cold, you think, ‘I’m supposed to be cold.’ And if your shoes are hard, you’re like, ‘Well, it’s cold out, so they should be hard.’ When you actually start walking around in these things in the cold weather, and they feel soft still, it’s this new experience, and you realize that you’ve been putting up with some crap for a while.”
As mentioned earlier, only time will tell if the new Boost cushioning platform from adidas will truly revolutionize performance running, and luckily, you can finally find out for yourself, as the Energy Boost launched today on adidas.com.
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