The NBA has banned the shoes -- known as the Concept 1's -- which are made and sold by a company called Athletic Propulsion Labs. Now, that doesn't prove that the shoes work as advertised, but it certainly won't hurt the company in its efforts to market the alleged performance-enhancing footwear to young ballers everywhere.
Athletic Propulsion Labs (APL) was notified of the ban by a senior NBA official, who (according to a press release) gave "undue competitive advantage" as the primary reason:
"League rules regulate the footwear that players may wear during an NBA game. Under league rules, players may not wear any shoe during a game 'that creates an undue competitive advantage (e.g., to increase a player's vertical leap). In light of that rule ... players will not be permitted to wear the APL shoes during NBA games."
SI's Chris Ballard put the shoes through a detailed series of tests, and the results were inconclusive at best.
Not surprisingly, the company is already taking full advantage of the publicity. APL's website has a picture of the shoes stamped with "Banned By The NBA" in big red letters right on the front page, with a large "BUY NOW" button just to the left of it. The site was down for a while, but according to Adam Goldston (one of the company's co-founders), taking the site down wasn't some kind of publicity stunt; the company simply wasn't ready for this much attention.
"We were ready for a large amount of traffic, but not to be the #1 story in the world," Goldston said via his Twitter account. "We prepared as best as we could."
The fact that the shoes have been banned by the league means that the company won't have any professional players signing on for endorsement deals. But the free, anti-endorsement that the NBA gave by banning them in the first place might prove to be more valuable than any amount of paid advertising.
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
I wore a pair to the bathroom this morning and I think I got on the bowl faster because of my new found jumping ability.
However, test were inconclusive at best as my morning wood might've held me down a bit.
Dude, whatever comment I had planned to leave went right out the window when I read your comment. Awesome!
This one is pretty simple to figure out. Nike doesn't like competition. They own almost every major Player in the league. They don't want another upstart company cutting into thier profit. Jordans cost about $7 to make and they sell to stupid kids for hundreds of dollars.
This one's a no brainer.
What kind of sports news is this? Sneakers that increases your leap? Declining Yankees? Gimme a BREAK. NEXT THEY WILL TRY TOP USE POOGO STICKS. The Yankees are not out of this yet ,. last time i looked they were down 3 games to 1 . I think it takes 4 games to win this series. All these non athletes, who have to pick up a pen instead, are quick to write anyone off. In a short series anything can happen . Do you think the 60' pirates were a better team then the 1960 Yankees ? In the same division ,they would have been 30 games in back of the Yankees.This year ,geradi stays with a pitcher in trouble too long . Yank the pitcher as soon as he shows he's fading. Now the Yankees are paying for it.Period
Sienfeld beat them by years, I remember the "Jimmy" episode where George Castanza and Cosmo Kramer were sold on high jumping shoes sold by Jimmy. It did not work out so well as I remember.
NBA SUCKS
I thought maybe the shoe would cut down on traveling or palming. Silly me, I thought it might make the sport a game to watch again. I was wrong it is still a dumbed down version of what used to be a real sport.
I tried these shoes on, and when i jumped, i overshot the basketball hoop, and would have entered earths orbit if i hadn't grabbed onto the wing of a passing airplane. The pilot seen me and opened the cabin door to let me in. Wow do you believe this story too ?
Life is just one endless loop of Seinfeld reruns.
They made a movie (Flubber) about this sort of thing back in the early 60's when Fred McMurray invented Flubber that they put on the bottom of basketball shoes and the players could jump through the rafters.
I am over 60 and I got some and was helping my neighbor put on a new roof. I carried several 80 pound bundle's up the ladder and was getting tired. The bundles were near the house and I thought mmmm I wonder, and I jumped off the house which was a 2 story house hit near the shingles and grabbed a bundle and BAM!!!!! I bounced back on the roof, placed the bundle and BAM!! Jumped back off grabbed another bundle and BAM!! Back up on the roof. I did this with 12 bundles and on the 13th the spring in the left foot broke and I spun like a propeller and flew like a helicopter for about 75 feet and landed on my head. I thought I was hallicinating as I remember seeing a guy flying in the air grab a planes wing. BUT When I saw this article I realized that that the shoes work and it wasn't the weed I smoked. I am going to get a second pair..
im gunna get this to beat my friends in ball
Hey...they finally made some sneakers for us white boys!!
I believe George Costanza has the exclusive franchise rights for these shoes!!!!
Jimmy's Down !!!
NIKE paid off the NBA-- and made a large contribution to the DNC thru Eric Holder's office; thus mitigating Obama's rancor--it's called business as usual unless it was Pete Rose. Its just more government intervention to limit business enterprise. November 2, 2010 looms on the horizon. We are going to close he Hen House and then clean up the Whitehouse in 2012
They wear shoes in the NBA?I had no idea.