New Textile Innovation That changes how to create Footwear
19 October 2020: FUTURECRAFT, ADIDAS Germany’s is new incubator for innovations and technologies. It is being designed to shape the future of sport, a platform to develop “what’s next” and solving issues facing athletes and sports world. STRUNG is a milestone that has the potential to transform the way athletes work with designers, engineers and sports scientists. The ultimate aim is for it to be a cross-category platform that serves multiple sports. They are planning to make the first shoe available late 2021/early 2022.
It is the first textile technology that transforms athlete data into dynamic performance material. It combines high-res creation technologies ADIDAS 4D & STRUNG, as the industry’s first fully athlete data-coded shoe Products, created for natural movement with athlete data informing design with less – seamless, lightweight fits, with minimal material throughout.
Reportedly, it all started in a basement with a small but dedicated group of the adidas Future team. The original inspiration came from architecture and some interesting experiments where we saw robotics used in a creative way to build fibre structures. The process of creating and refining new STRUNG software, hardware and prototypes led to increased buy-in and more and more people joining as development became more complex.
Getting that base STRUNG textile to work and function as we want is and will continue be a challenge. The first-of-its-kind concept shoe was created to provide a new experience of short-distance training runs at 5m/s or faster. Two adidas runners were identified as experts in this run and provided both motion capture and ongoing feedback to support development.
The midsole is said to be the most radical ADIDAS 4D lattice design to date – featuring a new shape to cater for forefoot strikers. The heel has been minimized to remove weight and the rubber outsole is specifically engineered to provide traction just where needed, resulting in an extremely minimalist midsole.
