Sneakers are not gym shoes! Are you still working out in sneakers? So what exactly are shoes for fitness?
More people go to the gym, more people need to wear a pair of fitness shoes
Although running shoes and basketball shoes are the most popular sports shoes in the gym, they are not training shoes suitable for bodybuilders.
For example, jogging shoes with thick cushioning air cushion make it difficult for people to maintain stability when squatting. On the contrary, as a cost-effective choice for strength training, the casual flat-bottomed Dafu Feiyue and Converse stand out. Whether it is for Lai Mei or CrossFit, there are not too many sports shoes that can meet a certain “softness and friction”.
But at the same time, we can see that Nike Metcon, Under Armour TriBase, Reebok Nano, and Nobull have become the favorites of practitioners in comprehensive training groups, even from China’s Anta, Duowei, Reebok Lifter, Nike ROMALEOS , hardcore trainers have multiple options.
Sneakers, not all gym shoes.
Similar trends are boosting the market layout of fitness training shoes of brands such as Nike and Under Armour. According to the official flagship store of Nike Tmall, there are a total of 23 styles of fitness training shoes.
The production of fitness training shoes comes from different fitness trainings that lead to different stress states of the feet, and shoes with different performances are required to provide protection. As a pan-sport field, fitness includes but is not limited to strength training represented by barbells and dumbbells, comprehensive training represented by CrossFit, and development training represented by Yoga Pilates.
For example, during standard squatting and deadlifting, the entire foot should be evenly stressed; the foot should be used as the force point to generate an interaction force with the ground; at the same time, the action itself requires flexibility and stability of the ankle. Therefore, the design of a high heel that makes the sole of the foot reach the ground, the sole is stiff, and can help the limited ankle to a certain extent, has become the basic consideration of the functional dimension of traditional strength training shoes.
The functional demands of vertical jumping, lateral movement and the original control of the feet in the developmental training derived from comprehensive training make the design of fitness shoes completely different from most sports shoes.
Whether the future development of fitness training shoes will be subdivided or concentrated still depends on whether the needs of users will be “refined and complex” or “general but simple”. After all, gym users have both Pros who carry two pairs of shoes for training, and Chills who have a pair of shoes covering the whole scene of life.
More people go to the gym, more people need to wear gym shoes
“Let more people enter the gym first” is more important than “specialization of the gym crowd”, so even most gym trainers don’t pay much attention to whether shoes or other equipment are completely suitable for fitness training.
For example, running shoes were once considered to be the “universal shoes” for the gym; many fitness enthusiasts may also have the experience of wearing air-cushion shoes for squatting and flat shoes for burpees. Squatting in air-cushion shoes is bad for keeping your body stable
But when more people go to the gym, the demand for more people to wear a pair of fitness shoes is also increasing.
The industry giant Nike has been in the field of fitness training for a long time. Its ROMALEOS series of weightlifting shoes has been regarded as the top footwear equipment for Chinese weightlifting or powerlifting players before it was officially released in the Chinese market. According to its Tmall official flagship store, there are a total of 23 styles of fitness training shoes.
As for Under Armour, which is deeply involved in the field of professional fitness, according to its Tmall official flagship store, there are 22 styles of fitness training shoes. In addition, Anta and its eponymous brand weightlifting shoes, which have been exposed by the “top class in the fitness circle” Lv Xiaojun, and Chinese-made brands such as Li Ning, FILA, and Desante have also joined the “fitness training shoes” track one after another.
Look at different fitness shoes, the functionality of the subdivision
Excluding decorative uses, footwear is a tool used to overcome physical damage to the foot from the environment and to reduce sports injuries. The essence of the design of fitness training shoes also comes from how to make the feet get a higher degree of protection and performance in the fitness training scene.
strength training scene
Support is reflected in fitness training shoes for the foot to improve performance in traditional strength training.
Taking the squat as an example, the entire foot needs to be evenly stressed; the foot is the point of force to generate an interaction force with the ground. This means that the squat sole needs to have enough stiffness to support the foot as a load-bearing force, and avoid any component force that affects the mechanical efficiency.
At the same time, because the squat action itself requires flexibility and stability of the ankle, a “stiff shoe-type foot” is derived from lack of toe function and limited range of motion of the ankle, resulting in a backward shift of weight to the heel; and structural stability of the foot Insufficient, limited ankle range of motion, leading to forward body weight and lumbar lordosis or a “compliant shoe” with forward flexion of the trunk.
As an auxiliary rather than a therapeutic tool, training shoes can help the high heel design of the limited ankle to a certain extent, and it has also become a consideration in the functional dimension of traditional strength training shoes. At the same time, squat shoes with heel heights of about 1.3 cm and 1.9 cm were designed due to different degrees of restriction or stability and different limb lengths.
Comprehensive training scenarios
In the comprehensive training represented by CrossFit and SAQ training, dynamic modes such as vertical jumping and lateral movement are added, and the pressure on the feet is also increased from static force to dynamic impact.
At the moment of jumping and landing, the foot must act as a shock absorber to dissipate the ground reaction force. And in the case of mobility training, it has to be a rigid lever that pushes the body forward, backward, or sideways.
Ankle sprains caused by lateral training are common in training. Due to excessive varus and plantar flexion of the ankle on the tibia. The injured ligaments are located on the outside of the ankle, including the anterior talar fibula, posterior talar fibula, and calcaneal fibula
Therefore, the sole of comprehensive training shoes needs to find a balance between support and cushioning, and the design of the upper and the ankle fixing place needs to take into account the elasticity and tear resistance.
For example, the Metcon series of Nike comprehensive training shoes has derived two variants of MFS and Free. By adjusting the overall hardness of the sole and the elasticity of the upper to match the comprehensive training enthusiasts with different needs; at the same time, the ROMALEOS weightlifting system that guarantees absolute support, emphasizes jumping SUPERREP with slow vibration and ALPHA SAVAGE with balanced performance form its comprehensive fitness training shoe matrix.
The future of fitness training shoes
The emerging category of fitness training shoes will move towards “multi-category subdivision” or “single category iteration” in the future, and fitness trainers play an important role in it.
Among the users of the gym, there are not only Pros who carry two pairs of shoes for training, but also Chills who have a pair of shoes covering the whole scene of life. It depends on whether their fitness philosophy is hardcore or Buddhist.
At the same time, the market education of large sports brands cannot be ignored either.
With the rise of sports and leisure brands such as lululemon and Allbirds, the boundaries of various life scenes are gradually blurred. Allbirds, which is famous for its wool shoes, has no obvious differences in appearance, color matching and applicable scenarios for its fitness shoes; it has long been rumored that lululemon, which is developing “home fitness shoes”, may also continue its Athleisure blood and penetrate. into the design of shoes.
On the other hand, traditional sports giant Nike and fitness training brand Under Armour all take advantage of their abundant design, abundant capital chain and stable supply chain to expand the branch line of all types of fitness shoes, and the performance of fitness shoes derived from training scenarios. needs to create differentiated outputs for different shoe styles.
And whether fitness shoes will become iconic shoes like Forrest Gump in running shoes and Air Jordan 1 in basketball shoes, or whether it depends on its appearance, whether it is like the American Dream represented by Forrest Gump running shoes and Air Jordan 1 represented by Air Jordan 1. The streets, like the rebellion against the mainstream, are intertwined with and represent a certain era.
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