We’ve already seen the stunning ace of kicks, Nike's Aqua Zoom Hyperfuse which the Swoosh plans to drop in lead-up to the 2010 FIBA World Championships and now we're offering you a quick glimpse at the rest of their Hyperfuse flush. Drawing inspiration from the abuse that basketball kicks take on the rugged outdoor courts in China, Nike's Zoom Hyperfuse comprises of a stability layer, breathable mesh layer and a durable outer skin, which have been fused together into a radical unibody. The engineering used to create the Hyperfuse composite provides a level of precision unattainable with traditional shoe construction. At roughly 12.5 ounces (US size 9), the ultra-lightweight Nike Zoom Hyperfuse embodies superior performance and has been seen on the feet of the Boston Celtics’ Rajon Rondo throughout the NBA Finals.
Images courtesy of Nike and Marqueesole.
Shane Kohatsu, Innovation Lead and Fred Dojan, Senior Innovator, from Nike's Innovation Kitchen recently spoke to the media at the World Basketball Festival launch about the Zoom Hyperfuse, here is what they had to say..
Kohatsu: Fuse is kind of the first baby step in a whole new way of making shoes. It's high precision, it's lighter weight, it's more consistent.
Fred Dojan: We started putting together some of these materials, we kind of thought this was a cool idea how these new materials came together. Shane and I went on a couple of different trips, we went to Beijing and Shanghai, we're looking at Chinese players.
Kohatsu: Basketball in China is a completely different sport then what it is in the US. It's almost entirely an outdoor sport. We realized that when we watched the kids play they were wearing everything except basketball shoes. A lot of kids are wearing running shoes, hiking boots and you start to question why. The kids will tell you, what they are looking for in a basketball shoe is great traction, great durability and great breathability. So the thing with running shoes it's made out of mesh. Mesh is really comfortable, but it's also very breathable. One of the challenges was how do you make a mesh shoe not only durable for outdoor basketball play, but functional enough for the type of movements you make during basketball. The idea with Fuse is pretty simple. The basic concept is around making these composites.
Dojan: We started trying to figure out what this composite was, how the layers come together, how the materials come together. We have a great innovation team. The new technology we're developing in this material, really lends itself well for playing outdoors, and just basketball in journal.
Kohatsu: Essentially when you take multiply materials and when the combination creates a property that's greater then any individual component, that's composite.
Dojan: We have a base synthetic material, mesh material and a skin. So the functionality of each individual layer is the base material is for where you'd want to have containment on the feet. The mesh is the areas that hold it all together, it's an unibody construction, it also enables to have windows for breathability. The skin is wear we want to have additional protection on the shoe from abrasion.
Kohatsu: On the foot most the heat is built up in the mid-foot, also in the toe area for moisture. So actually we left it open as much as possible with mesh. On the underside where you need structure, support and shape of the shoe, you can see the base-layer is synthetic, is now loaded in those areas. On top of the mesh, where you actually need to protect the mesh from abrasion. Those areas are covered with this really thin skin material. In basketball there's essentially certain types of support and structure you need in the shoe. One of them is in the ankle area, where all the support starts. That area you can see the three materials, the skin material, the mesh material and base material are all built up there. In the mid-foot, this is where you have the most variety in foot shape. You want this area to be really conforming, at the same time you want it to be breathable. That allows us to open up the composite material so it's mostly mesh. That creates a very snug one-to-one fit. As you go into the forefoot, the structure that's built into the bottom of the material that supports your foot where you're making a cutting motion. In addition to that, it's a challenging area because you need support, but at the same time you need flexibility and breathability. It's been engineered in a way that it provides all three of things. That's one of the things that does really well with this type of construction. Most basketball shoes are made out of leather, or synthetic leather that we know is durable enough. With a product that is open, lightweight and meshy as this is we have to do a lot of work around long-term durability testing. We went through rounds, rounds of putting these on testers in China, especially where there is a lot of risk of play. Going from a really, really structured synthetic material upper, to a very soft compliant mesh upper, people loved the fit of it, people loved the breathability of it. I think it forces designers to think a little bit differently about designing shoes.
Dojan: We've only just scratch the surface of what we've developed with this, there's so many possibilities of where we're headed with this.
PRESS RELEASE.
Hyperfuse Revolutionizes Footwear Performance and the Way Nike Footwear is Designed and Manufactured.
Nike lives to enhance the performance of athletes with comfort, stability, strength and light weight. From Nike's Innovation Kitchen comes Hyperfuse, a new method of creating footwear that with a unibody composite that will shake up the traditional world of footwear.
Hyperfuse delivers superior lightweight footwear performance, inspired by the rugged outdoor basketball play in China. The Hyperfuse composite system offers a superior stability layer, a breathable mesh layer, and a durable outer skin layer that combine to give footwear new strength, breathability and lightweight (at roughly 12.5 ounces for a size 9).
In addition to its high-performance characteristics, Hyperfuse dramatically changes the way footwear is made. Significantly increasing the precision of the manufacturing process, Hyperfuse "fuses" its distinct layers into a composite using a unique manufacturing method. Hyperfuse eliminates the need to manually stitch together footwear materials, and provides engineered zones of performance with a level of precision never possible with traditional cut-and-sew construction.
"We spend an inordinate amount of time looking at what the problems are that today's basketball players face," says Tracy Teague, Nike Basketball's Global Creative Director. "We work toward the notion of giving players a competitive advantage. Hyperfuse is a new way to create footwear. Hyperfuse goes against traditional methods, where pieces are cut and sewn together, then wrapped around a last - the way shoes have been made for decades. Hyperfuse is a whole new way to look at footwear."
The footwear material palette traditionally used in basketball has remained static for years and tended to be leather-based. Historically in basketball, mesh-type materials were not an option due to the support structure needed for lateral stability. Until now. With Hyperfuse, mesh can be strategically incorporated into the composite, along with a precise internal skeleton structure, and fused together to create a continuous, unibody layer, providing unprecedented levels of breathability and comfort while not compromising the superior strength and toughness that basketball demands.
Born through insights gained from basketball athletes in China, where basketball is played extensively on outdoor courts and where breathability becomes a huge factor, Hyperfuse delivers a strong and lightweight solution through unibody composite construction. "Heat and pressure create one material. There are no seams, no hot spots, less chance for seam ripping," says Teague. "One of the biggest areas of footwear returns is stitching failure, 'blowouts,' if you will. Not with this," adds Teague.
Hyperfuse basketball footwear employs Nike's tried-and-true Nike Zoom unit for superior cushioning with a low-to-the-court feel and control. It also features anatomical flex grooves in the forefoot and a de-coupled heel for optimal motion.
Hyperfuse, already on the feet of several key NBA players, is drawing praise for its great fit and lightweight-but-super-responsive feel. "It delivers benefits for players that we haven't brought in the past," adds Teague.
With the new Hyperfuse process, Nike is also able to add a broader color palette (with 11 in-line colors and 11 team colors available at launch), as well as additional textures (think embossing) that can be added. It's also compatible with Nike's popular customization innovation, Nike iD.
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