This article from USA Today talks about shoe gimmicks and sneaker production. Sublime.
Adidas touts new T-Mac 4 with leather, but no lace
The good news about $125 Adidas sneakers making their debut next week: At least you'll never have to pay for new laces.
The T-Mac 4, billed as the first laceless performance basketball shoe, will be the fourth "signature" shoe for Houston Rockets star Tracy McGrady. And, Adidas spokesman Travis Gonzolez says, it might eventually threaten the shoelace industry itself: "We believe the idea of laceless shoes can go across all sports."
The shoe lets wearers turn a lever in its heel to tighten cables in order to tighten the shoe's fit. But the idea isn't just to finally eradicate the haunting peril of untied shoelaces for consumers.
The high-end sneaker business is also about targeting teens and grabbing their attention with something different, such as the $250 sneakers with a computer chip meant to automatically adjust the shoe's fit. That Adidas shoe, simply called 1, will debut in December.
So-called signature sneakers, backed in ads by star athletes used as endorsers, are often created to sell just 80,000-100,000 pairs — but create cachet for the brand. "You want them to make the shoes aspirational," Gonzolez says. "And hard to get. You don't want them sitting on store shelves for long."
So how about sneakers with computer chips but without laces? "These innovations take years to develop," Gonzolez says. "But I'm sure our (research) guys are trying to do something like that."
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