Next month, Adidas will launch a running shoe specifically developed for women. Why is this news, you ask, I've seen plenty of pink sneakers before. Well, those shoes were by and large designed for men then "adapted" for women, Footwear News reports. Or, as Quartz quotes the industry term, "shrink it and pink it." Not any more. Adidas PureBoost X is the result of three years of research on women's feet. According to Wired, the company used technology typically employed by NASA and Boeing to test the structural integrity of aircraft to see what happens to a woman's foot as she runs. What they found is that women's feet expand more than men's when they hit the ground, in addition to being higher at the arch and narrower at the heel.
The shoe that resulted from those years of research seeks to be as flexible as a woman's foot, Quartz reports. According to Footwear News, the main innovation is a "floating arch," created by detaching part of the body of the shoe from its sole. "What this does is create a skin-like fit,” an Adidas senior director says. “It allows your foot to have amazing, natural movement.” Wired reports Adidas decided to focus on a shoe specifically for women after noticing more women than men had been signing up for its sponsored races in recent years. One expert thinks it's about time, telling Wired "it's unbelievable" that it's taken this long for women to figure more prominently in the sportswear development process. The shoe will come in $120 and $170 models, according to Quartz. (More sneakers stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
