The impact of self-lacing technology on foot containment during dynamic cutting

The sport of basketball requires repeated dynamic side-to-side movements that can cause foot sliding and place excessive stress on the athlete. Footwear that provides containment to reduce the motion of the foot relative to the shoe may have performance and injury prevention advantages. Foot containment can vary significantly across different types of footwear due to its dependence on the interaction between the shoe lacing system of the upper and specific design features within the shoe. This study used high-speed stereo radiography to assess the impact of a self-lacing system with three conditions of increasing lace tension compared to a control basketball shoe on foot containment by measuring foot-shoe motion during cutting and jab step activities. Twenty healthy athletes performed dynamic cutting activities in view of a unique stereo radiography system positioned to measure motion of specific foot bones while motion capture and perception data were also collected. By tracking bead positions on the foot and shoe, relative motion of the foot inside the shoe was measured along shoe planes during activity. The self-lacing system showed statistically significant reductions in foot-shoe motion of as much as 75.2% while performing dynamic basketball cuts. Controlling tension with the lacing system provides athletes flexibility in containment to go from a loose fit to a tight fit and reduce in-shoe motion by up to 39.3%. Furthermore, perception data showed athletes had 20.1% greater confidence to perform cutting tasks with increases in lace tension. Reduction of in-shoe foot motion with a self-lacing system is an important consideration in the design of footwear for performance athletes.

Automated summary

This study used high-speed stereo radiography to assess the impact of a self-lacing system with varying lace tension on foot containment during basketball activities. The results showed that the self-lacing system significantly reduced foot-shoe motion and increased athletes' confidence and flexibility.