METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH IN DESIGNING THE SPORT SHOES

Abstract

During sports activities the athletes wear special shoes designed to provide the conditions to perform their movements at best. Motor strategies typical of each sport, playing surfaces and foot protection against repetitive loads and impacts, are the most important factors for determining the basic concepts of design. Each sport needs proper solutions depending on playing surface, foot protection and motor strategies. The same problems has be faced when the design of a sport shoe is considered by a scientific point of view. \ Aim of this lecture is to describe an example of methodology to study the complex interactions among athlete, shoe and playing surface. The goal of this approach is to obtain objective criteria to improve the sport shoe performance. Some fundamental topics will be discussed: - the main anatomo-morphological characteristics of the athletes' foot and the geometrical modification when the shoe is worn, - typical conflicts between shoe and foot, - organization of athletes' groups to obtain information from the field, supported by a statistical base, - methods for the identification of basic movements of each sport and their occurrence, - methods for the measurement of the biomechanical variables mainly related to the modifications of movement and to the transfer of load between lower limb and surface, - criteria to set up specific protocols for testing, from a biomechanical point of view, the materials and the unit "shoe". Each topic will be described through the theoretical approach, the instrumentations, the experimental protocols and examples of results.