Adidas Partnering With Acadia
November 21st, 2013
One of the world’s leading athletic apparel companies, adidas, has partnered with researchers at Acadia University in Wolfville, N.S., to test its latest footwear. According to one market research company, athletic shoes are one of the fastest growing categories in the Canadian footwear market with sales reaching $1.3 billion so far in 2013. In order to compete in the sports apparel market, adidas looks at enhancing athletic performance and developing technologies to minimize the risk of injury.
The company turned to Acadia in 2012 for its state-of-the-art research equipment, its soon-to-open Human Motion Lab and its kinesiology department’s practice of working with varsity athletes for testing. For example, the research team enlisted the help of Acadia’s men’s basketball team, ranked second in the country last year, to test the new adidas Adipure Crazyquick basketball shoe. Team members were timed and evaluated with equipment funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) while completing agility drills. Acadia’s research is shared with adidas to help the company improve shoe design and increase its understanding of injury prevention.
Acadia’s new CFI-funded Human Motion Lab is scheduled to open in the coming months, and will boost the institution’s sports research capacity and further strengthen its partnership with adidas. In the lab, researchers will continue to identify risk factors to reduce the incidence of sport-related injuries to the knee.