are these guys on to something? (Athletic Propulsion Labs)

i wonder what technology they created/renamed/modified to make this claim. it’s interesting and i like how they didn’t skimp on the styling just because it had innovative tech. i’m loving the midsole and colorway…looks like someone was a fan of the AM95 :wink:

yea thats a cool shoe, like how they went bold with the lime color pop.

wish i could read more on the tech though, i didnt see anywhere where you could click through for more info. :confused:

I rec. a twitter feed about these shoes the other day; I really like the color and the midsole. Increased vertical Jump…I suppose it is better than the Strength shoes; Spud Webb and Mugsy Boogs could rep. these shoes…
strength-shoes-1.jpg

Flubber

i honestly don’t know what they could possibly have created/engineered in order to make such a bold claim. i’m super excited for more details, but the price tag is a bit steep…although, if the improvement is a few inches, then i’d probably cough up the dough. maybe they make you jump ‘higher’ because the midsole is super thick, making you that much taller. i’m bracing for lawsuits that claim false advertisement.

Its looks very strange without any kind of huge logo on the side, but I must admit that this fact tickles me fancy.

I tried to find more info about this shoe but no one knows anything about it.

I would wager that even if does indeed make you jump higher you will not see much of this on the court. Im betting that any advantage it could possibly give you jumping, aside from lighter weight, will significantly impact agility and stability, which are far more important in basketball than jumping height. If the shoe can indeed provide jumping advantage with out significant sacrifice in other areas i will be impressed, but my hopes are not high.

They probably make the claim in comparison to not wearing shoes at all as appose to a different kind of sneakers.

i’m skeptical about the claims, but i am still excited to see the results. three things can happen here…

A) the shoe is successful both on delivering on it’s claims because the tech is legit, and in being a high performance basketball shoe. if that’s the case, then the industry will be turned upside-down. now folks will definitely think twice before dropping money on a pair of shoes that may be aesthetically pleasing but uses the same old technology that doesn’t really augment existing abilities, or if they actually want to improve their game.

if they ARE successful, will leagues/schools/tournaments allow them, or will paying money to improve your game make them something that will divide schools into the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’? i can see poorer schools complaining that the shoes may give players on an opposing team an advantage.

B) the shoe can be successful in delivering on it’s promise, but at the cost of overall performance. what i mean is, a shoe can make you jump higher for a number of reasons…
-a thicker mid-sole that makes you taller, thus letting you get ‘higher’
-an actual spring that may make you jump higher but you sacrifice stability and balance (think jump-soles)

so forth and so on. if that’s the case, then i doubt these will take off and will instead end up being an interesting footnote in the sneaker books. who wants shoes that can make you jump high but you can’t wear on the court or you’ll turn an ankle?

C) the shoe doesn’t make you jump higher. epic fail and law suits will soon follow.

time will tell, but for now, APL has my attention.

style,
I think you are getting way too political on your response to point A, with the haves and have-nots. I see what you are saying but its not health care we are talking about here. :slight_smile:

and i think we can rule out the lightweight aspect (that they are so light tat it improves your jump that is), these shoes are not going to be any lighter than the kobe’s or even hyperdunks, just by looking at them you can tell, even if they did have some magical foam that was superlight, which i doubt, it would only be 4-5 ounces lighter than the kobe at a max. Im wondering if that upper material really is a woven fiber or if thats just an emboss on some PU.

From looking at the sight again and their descriptions i think it has something to do with the shank in the outsole, a sort of spring board effect maybe. Keeping an eye on these :wink:

i guess i’m just looking at it from the perspective that, if the shoes DO augment your natural ability, where do we draw the line in terms of what equipment will be allowed in a sport and what isn’t? corked bats have been proven to not add any significant speed or power, but the slight decrease in weight seems to be enough to knock a ball out of the park.

as for the upper, yeah, i’m curious as to if that’s the actual material or if it’s just texturized.

you know what would be fun? if we speculated and sketched/designed the technology that could possibly be contained within the shoe and see who comes the closest.

I would wager that even if does indeed make you jump higher you will not see much of this on the court. Im betting that any advantage it could possibly give you jumping, aside from lighter weight, will significantly impact agility and stability, which are far more important in basketball than jumping height. If the shoe can indeed provide jumping advantage with out significant sacrifice in other areas i will be impressed, but my hopes are not high.[/quote]

thats what i was thinking; read somewhere the gain is 3", doesn’t seem like that much…and the tech is called load n launch (i think?) i has some mechanism that “only works when jumping” i’d really love to get a pair to see what’s what[quote=“crewkid”]I tried to find more info about this shoe but no one knows anything about it.

Came across this earlier today, pretty in depth interview with the founders/ creators of the APL Concept 1. Check it out.
http://www.counterkicks.com/2010/03/25/counterkicks-interviews-adam-ryan-goldston-athletic-propulsion-labs-founders-part-1-of-2/

i wonder if they’ll take it to actual stores, as opposed to right now, where it looks to be strictly a web purchase. if people can’t try it out first, it may detract from them spending that money.

something that expensive has to come with a warranty too, insuring not only the technology, but the materials. i’d hate to buy a $300 shoe to play in competitively, only to have the mechanism blow out, or the upper fall to pieces.

If the shoe really does improve jump height I think style is right on. Isn’t this the same thing which happened with the Speedo LZR suit at the 2008 Olympics? The US team got them for free while every other country would have to pay $5000 per suit. I remember lots of controversy.

I think there’s got to be a catch with this shoe though. Not a well known company and online only? Doesn’t look too promising. I’m betting on lawsuits for false advertising.

Thanks for checking out the story, Yurri. Here’s the updated link everyone should go to (we tweaked the other one slightly so it doesnt link anymore)…
http://counterkicks.com/2010/03/26/counterkicks-interviews-adam-ryan-goldston-athletic-propulsion-labs-founders-part-1-of-2/

That’s the interview I personally did with the APL founders and it’s the first major in-depth piece anywhere online with the company. They have loads of industry experience and backers behind the brand, so I would highly suggest reading the story to get a better view on what APL is all about and how the footwear works. A lot of earlier questions are answered in the CK piece. Part 2 coming next week.

Can’t miss a Tuan sketch. :slight_smile:
He had done stuff here in the past, his sketches and marker work are really nice.

Yeah, it was interesting to hear that Tuan doesn’t use the computer at all for his designers. The APL guys said even when Tuan did the tech packs or any little changes to the shoe, he just redrew the entire thing from scratch. They produced the shoe with the Pou Chen factories and all the tech packs were just Tuan’s drawings - no computer renderings at all.

We did it that way for decades, still works. You know full size drawings used to be folded up and mailed to the factory.

^^Yup. I actually have some old folded up hand-drawn tech packs and things from various shoes. I guess everything is so digital these days with new designers growing up on Illustrator, Photoshop, and 3D that it’s interesting to see some guys sticking completely to hand made stuff.