Nike launches Adapt BB, a self-lacing basketball shoe
Product news
For optimal feel, the new shoe adapts to the shape of your foot in real time.
Original content published: 15 January 2019
What to know:
- When you step into the Nike Adapt BB, a custom motor and gear train senses space around your foot and adjusts accordingly to achieve a snug fit.
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Over the course of a basketball game, your foot can swell and expand. One minute your shoe might feel like it's super comfortable and the next, unnecessarily constricted. Achieving the "perfect fit" can be like aiming at a moving target. That's why Nike designers set out to create a fit solution that would adapt to an athlete's feet in real time.
(Related: How to measure your foot to find the right shoe size)
The effort to refine fit has yielded a number of innovative platforms through Nike history—Huarache, Flywire and Flyknit, to name a few. Perhaps none was more critical to advancing custom fit than the 2016 introduction of the Nike HyperAdapt 1.0, the first Nike multi-purpose performance sneaker to feature power lacing, a system that automatically tightens the laces once you put on the shoe.
Debuting in the new Nike Adapt BB basketball sneaker, Nike Adapt is an advanced fit solution that offers a platform to create a custom fit. Combining an advanced power-lacing system, an app and continually updated firmware, the performance footwear offers an optimal fit, even as the game progresses.
"We picked basketball as the first sport for Nike Adapt intentionally because of the demands that athletes put on their shoes", said Eric Avar, Nike vice president and creative director of innovation.
"During a normal basketball game, the athlete's foot changes. The ability to quickly change your fit by loosening your shoe to increase blood flow and then tighten again for performance is a key element that we believe will improve the athlete's experience".
How the shoe works
When a player steps into the Nike Adapt BB, a custom motor and gear train senses the space around the foot and adjusts to keep the foot snug. Then, as players begin to move, FitAdapt technology kicks in. By manual touch or by using the Nike Adapt app on a smartphone, players can input fit settings that can vary during different moments of a game.
Plus, players can opt in to firmware updates for the FitAdapt technology as they become available, sharpening the precision of the fit. For example, during a timeout, a player can loosen the sneaker and then tighten it up before restarting the game.
As new digital services become available with fresh features, players can continue to adjust their preferences for all parts of the game—including warm-ups, half-time and cool-downs.
How it was tested
Similar to the HyperAdapt 1.0, the Nike Adapt BB was put through a battery of tests, including impact tests, intense temperatures, end-of-life tests that lasted tens of thousands of cycles, and waterproof tests to simulate sweaty feet, among others.
After rounds of tests, Nike design teams sought the ultimate stamp of approval: professional player sign-off. To do so, Nike designers welcomed NBA all-stars like Boston Celtics' small forward, Jayson Tatum, to Nike World Headquarters to test the shoe.
After putting the shoe through an exhaustive trial period that included workouts and casual games, players provided meaningful feedback, which could be applied to future design innovations.
"Being one of the first athletes to wear the shoe and being picked as a representative of the future of Nike Basketball means a lot", Tatum said. "That the app allows the ability to put the shoe on and touch the button, change the colours, see the percentage on the battery ... it's just cool".
Where it's headed
Because of the shoe's digital app and opt-in firmware updates, Nike Adapt BB is the first continually updated performance product by Nike. Once the FitAdapt system is honed to provide the optimal quality fit in basketball, FitAdapt will be applied to other sport and lifestyle products that each have unique demands for fit in different environments.
Release date: FitAdapt technology will be available in the Nike Adapt BB beginning in February 2019.