Friday, September 19, 2008

New Balance, MIT spinout take shoe-making tech to Lawrence location

By Brendan Lynch

A sneaker stalwart that wants to punish its footwear and a startup that wants to sell you socially networked shoes are applying high technology to the lowest part of your wardrobe — all in the former mill city of Lawrence.

New Balance Athletic Shoe Inc. last week opened a new 3,000-square-foot research and development facility in Lawrence, where it already has manufacturing operations. The Brighton-based sneaker maker’s Sports Research lab includes a 120-foot running track and a “smash lab” filled with biomechanics technology to measure runner and sneaker performance.

Meanwhile, about two miles from the New Balance R&D facility, MIT Media Lab spinout VectraSense Technologies Inc. is selling its Verb for Shoe product, whose embedded computer responds to the foot’s movements to provide better cushioning — but may be most notable for introducing social networking to footwear. The casual shoe can wirelessly connect with a nearby person’s VectraSense shoe and exchange contact information, which can then be uploaded to a PC.

Each site offers an example of how technology can make an impact on everyday consumer products, like shoes.

New Balance’s smash lab is making its mark through analysis: Its video equipment can capture 1,000 frames per second (as opposed to a traditional video camera’s 30 frames), and its 120-foot glass runway can analyze the force of a runner’s feet as they hit the ground (using cameras below the pane to record the foot landings). It also sports a machine that can mimic the effects of a road race on a shoe — without the grueling run.

“While we go home at night, the shoe goes through a marathon, basically,” said Trampas Tenebroek, a Ph.D. candidate from the University of Massachusetts Amherst department of kinesiology who, along with colleague Pedro Rodrigues, is managing the R&D operation.

New Balance has had an R&D partnership with UMass since 1989 or so, but last year decided to bring the function in-house, according to manager of advanced projects engineering Sean Murphy. At the Lawrence lab, New Balance plans future models and tests its current sneakers, as well as those of its competitors, Murphy said.

The lab recently tested its equipment with half-marathon national champion James Carney. Using the force plate, which Tenebroek called “a very complicated bathroom scale,” the researchers were able to tell Carney why he always wore out his left shoe quicker than his right. Carney’s left foot torques significantly before it hits the ground, Tenebroek said.

Murphy said Tenebroek, who prefers basketball, also had his turn as a guinea pig: “If you saw his crossover dribble in slow-motion, it was pretty easy to pick off,” Murphy said.

Research & development
The importance of high-tech R&D for a shoe company depends on its focus on function versus form, according to Ronald Demon, CEO of VectraSense, which employs five people in Lawrence.

“For a small company, (R&D) makes or breaks you,” he said.

Privately owned New Balance doesn’t disclose its R&D spending. About 45 miles south of the lab, Adidas AG subsidiary Reebok International Ltd performs its R&D in Canton. Adidas spent $84 million on R&D in 2007, almost 1 percent of its net sales, according to its annual report. Reebok also maintains R&D relationships with Central Michigan University and MIT, according to the annual report.

Demon said the shoes, sold for $750 on the company’s website, are popular among “Wall Street folks” and have drawn particular interest from buyers in Poland and Germany.

The increasing ubiquity of technology — mobile phones and iPods for example — is preparing consumers to accept high-tech components in unlikely places, Demon said. He plans to ramp up marketing and introduce a women’s model in mid- to late-2009.

“Society’s trending toward having technology more involved in our lives,” he said.