Sports Life of Adidas

Sports Life of Adidas

Over eighty years ago, in 1)Herzegovina, Germany, a young shoemaker made house-slippers 1 from old military canvas bags to help put food on his family’s table. He was also a keen soccer player, and he soon adapted those slippers to his soccer game. The attention he gained for his 2)lightweight, comfortable sport shoes, did nothing but grow from the first day he wore them. His name was Adi Dassler. 

By the 1920’s, Adi Dassler was already experimenting with running 3)spikes to improve performance. By the 1930’s he was the leading sports shoe manufacturer in the world, making thirty different shoes for eleven sports. And the tradition of innovation continues to the present day. 

Adidas came up with “Mi Adidas”, a traveling program that lets you be properly fitted in a way that has never been possible before. You have your foot measured and scanned to get a detailed 3 outline of the exact length and width of each foot, to within one tenth of a centimeter. Next, you lightly jog across a pressure pad, which reveals the exact placement of the foot under pressure. That information goes into a computer, to help narrow down the best shoe for you. Now you try on a “dummy 4 boot”, to make sure that the width, arch fitting, and tightness are exactly to your liking 5. After you’ve made your decision, you’ll just have to wait three weeks, while they create your dream 4)sneaker.

Most sports shoe production has shifted to Asia. But Adidas has a specialized 6 production facility in Germany, that creates new models of 5)prototypes, as well as custom shoes, for some of the most valuable feet in the world – professional athletes. To make a custom shoe, they create an outline of the foot, a 3-D 6)foam 7 7)imprint 8, and then take several measurements of the foot. About twelve workers, in Scheinfeld, make four hundred pairs of made-to-measure shoes each month for the world’s best athletes.

Renata Urban (Asst. Manager, Adidas Global Training Center): One of the most famous athletes, especially in Europe, is football player David Beckham. We’ve had a lot of shoes made for him last year during the World Cup. And, well, his feet are quite close to a standard size, so, the made-to-measure docks for David Beckham is not too much amended 9. But he has very individualized shoes, with the name embroidered 10 in the tongue and the player’s number on the heel patch, and some different amendments 11 from time to time.

But it’s not just athletes who need comfortable shoes. Anyone, who’s prepared to pay, can get Adidas made to measure. 

Adi Dassler’s shoe made its Olympic appearance in 1928, and ever since then, athletes have wanted more from their footwear, whether they’re wrestlers, or fencers, or sprinters, or long-distance runners, or even 8)bobsledders. What they have on their foot changes how well they can perform.

Tom Kennedy (Global Public Relations Manager, Adidas): The interesting thing maybe about the most recent Olympics in Sydney, was that they made shoes for 26 of 28 Olympic sports. They had shoes in almost every sport imaginable except for sailing and, 9)equestrian 12. In something like fencing, for example, if you look at them you can see they’re actually two different shoes, because when a fencer stands, they stand with their feet perpendicular 13 to each other, uh, and so they’ve made modifications 14. This shoe actually is built at an angle because, when they 10)lunge, the foot actually collapses 15 inward, like this, so it helps them push better. This shoe is more 11)cushioned in the heel because when they attack, they land quite hard on their heel, so there’s all kinds of modifications and things built into these shoes that make them quite specialized for their task.

So you can see that if you’re going to go into a store and just ask for what size they have, you’re probably not going to be able to take advantage of all the technology available. It’s best to go to someone who really knows what’s in the shoe and what’s best for you. Sometimes it’s more important to have a good athletic 16 shoe than it is a street shoe, because it has to put up with a lot more. 

But it needn’t be out of your financial reach. While custom-made shoes for Olympic athletes can range up to $800, the “Mi Adidas” program offers many of the same custom features for an average retail 17 price. 

注释：
1) Herzegovina [7hZEtsE^Eu5vi:nE] n. 黑塞哥维那（原为土耳其在欧洲南部的一省，1878～1914为奥匈帝国的一部分，现为南斯拉夫的波斯尼亚-黑塞哥维那共和国的一部分）
2) lightweight [5laitweit] a. 轻量的，轻质的
3) spike 2 [spaik] n. 钉鞋
4) sneaker [5sni:kE] n. 运动鞋
5) prototype [5prEutEtaip] n. 原型
6) foam [fEum] n. 泡沫
7) imprint [im5print] n. 压痕；印记
8) bobsledder [5bCbsledE] n. 滑大雪橇比赛的人
9) equestrian [i5kwestriEn] n. 马术
10) lunge [lQndV] v. 刺，刺进
11) cushion [5kuFEn] v. 加衬垫

阿迪达斯：青春无极限

八十多年前，德国的黑塞哥维那有一位年轻的鞋匠，他经常拿旧军用帆布袋缝制家用拖鞋以养家糊口。他还特喜欢踢足球，不久，他就改装了那些拖鞋，使它们在足球场上派上了用场。从穿上自制球鞋的第一天起，他制作的既轻便又舒适的球鞋就越来越多地受到人们的关注。这个人便是阿迪·达斯拉。
早在二十世纪二十年代，阿迪·达斯拉就已经在试验钉鞋以提高奔跑速度。到了三十年代，他成了世界顶级的运动鞋制造商，制作的鞋多达三十种，适用于十一项运动，其追求创新的风格一直延续到今日。
阿迪达斯推出了“我的阿迪达斯”巡回销售活动，破天荒地为个人量身订做运动鞋。首先，工作人员会对你的脚进行测量和扫描，以取得每只脚长、宽的数值，这些数值准确至0.1厘米。然后，他们会让你轻跑着踏过一块压力板，以便对受压状态下的脚掌受压状况进行准确定位。所有测量信息一并汇入电脑，以求找出最佳样式。现在就试试“样鞋”吧，看看宽度、弓度、紧度合不合心意。一旦敲定，只需等待三个星期，你的梦幻运动鞋就能出炉了！
阿迪达斯的大多数鞋厂都已迁至亚洲，但在德国还保留着一家专业生产机构，专为世界职业运动员的那些极其名贵的脚研制最新款式及订做运动鞋。在制造订做鞋之前，他们先用泡沫塑料为脚的轮廓打造一个三维模型，随后再丈量脚的每一部分的尺寸。在沙因菲尔德，大约十二名工人在一个月里能为世界顶级运动员制做四百双这样的鞋。

雷娜塔·厄本（阿迪达斯全球训练中心助理经理）：其中一位在欧洲尤为受欢迎的世界级知名运动员，就是足球明星大卫·贝克汉姆。去年“世界杯”期间我们就为他做了许多双鞋。不过他的脚极为接近标准尺码，所以为大卫·贝克汉姆做鞋，车床无需做太大改变。不过他对鞋的要求倒是极为个性化：鞋舌上要绣上他的名字，鞋后跟要印上球员号码，而且这些要求时不时还会变动。
然而并不是只有运动员才需要舒适的鞋子，任何人，只要愿意掏腰包，都可以买到量身订做的阿迪达斯。
阿迪·达斯拉的鞋首次亮相于奥运会是在1928年，从那时起，运动员对鞋的要求越来越高。无论是摔跤、击剑，还是短跑、长跑，乃至滑大雪橇比赛，运动员穿的鞋直接影响他们的表现。

汤姆·肯尼迪（阿迪达斯全球公关经理）：有趣的是，在上届的悉尼奥运会上，他们总共为28个奥运比赛项目中的26个项目的参赛运动员制作了运动鞋，除帆船比赛和马术比赛，几乎包含了所有运动项目。以击剑为例，仔细观察不难发现，击剑选手的两只鞋子各不相同，因为当击剑手直立时，他的双脚要成直角，所以工人们相应地对鞋作了改良。这边的鞋有一个弯度，因为当击剑手向前刺时，这只脚会像这样往内倾，这样设计的鞋便能帮助他们向前推进；而这只鞋的跟垫加厚了，因为他们进攻时，脚跟着地用力较大。所以，对这些鞋做出这样那样的改动，都是为了让它们更适合该项运动。
因此，如果你走进一家鞋店，只是询问他们有什么样的鞋码，你是难以体验当今所有的科技进步给运动鞋带来的优势，只有到真正知道鞋里有什么、什么最适合你的人那里才是明智之选。有时候买双好的运动鞋比买双逛街穿的鞋更重要，因为它要承受的压力实在太多。
但也不一定非要让你出大价钱，才能拥有这样的鞋。虽说为奥运健儿订做的鞋，售价可达800美元，但“我的阿迪达斯”销售活动为消费者提供的运动鞋，其价位只是普通的零售价，但却具有订做鞋的特色。