Why the NBA decided to ban a shoe: The APL shoe debate
For the first time in its history, the NBA has decided to ban a shoe. No player is allowed to wear a new shoe called Concept 1 during matches because apparently they feel it can give players an unfair edge. The shoes called Concept 1 are made by a company
called Athletic Propulsion Labs. The shoes were targeted towards professional basketball players and especially those in the NBA. But it seems to have put a real dent in the company’s plans because the NBA has recently banned the shoes. It will be interesting
to see what the future holds for these innovative shoes and the company behind them.
Athletic Propulsion labs or APL was formed by two brothers in 2009 with a focus on producing and manufacturing high end innovative athletic footwear. Adam and Ryan Goldston were two brothers who were athletes at the University of Southern California and
soon after graduating they decided to set up a company together. They worked on a new type of basketball shoe for a long time and came up with new technology that would allow athletes to jump higher. They noticed at university that a large proportion of athletes
worked very hard on trying to increase the height of their vertical jump. They wanted to create something that would help those athletes jump higher.
The result was a unique technology that they called Load ‘N Launch. Basically the system works by a unique device, that is patent pending, that works with the sole of the shoe to compress large amounts of energy and then when the player takes off using the
front of their foot, the device acts as a spring and propels them upwards. The shoe also uses a fancy sounding high-pressure Thermoplastic Urethane shank that runs through the arch of the shoe and helps to stabilise the foot and transfer the energy effectively
to the unique and secret device. The brothers have conducted test among university athletes using biomechanical testing methods. The results showed an average increase of 3.5 inches per participant in the test.
The shoes have a very specific audience and that is where the problem comes in. They are targeted towards professional athletes and other aspiring athletes in basketball. The founders claim that the shoes are not training shoes and will not help an athlete’s
vertical jump increase over time. They are meant to be used specifically for in game situations where a basketball player wants to jump higher. Recently the NBA has banned the shoe and this has had two effects to the company.
Firstly they have lost a chunk of their market share. They were targeting the high end professional athletes of the NBA and with the shoe banned they cannot do that now. On the other hand though, since the shoe has been banned by the NBA, which means that
the technology works and it is not some fraudulent claim, they will become very interesting to a lot of other amateur and non professional basketball players out there. The company might see a spike in sales simply because of the reason of getting banned.
It is a common practice that whenever something is banned, its sales go through the roof.
The company is now looking to come out with newer and more innovative technology in different sports. They are looking to even introduce a unique running shoe in early 2011 and say that it will feature some new innovative technology as well. The duo may
see their future running shoe also get banned from the Olympics or in marathons as well. But that might also in turn boost sales!
The next few years will either make or break this innovative company. The future looks bright for APL if they can capitalise on the success of their first product. It does not look likely that the NBA will overturn its ban on the shoes anytime soon because
they are simply unfair to competitors who do not wear them. This interesting shoe technology has become a talking point in basketball circles and the last shoes to do this were Air Jordans, so Concept 1 is clearly a good company.
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