#10) PEAK Basketball Design Concept

Designer: Jason Rau

Shoe name: PEAK Tri-Power

Design description: To create a high performance basketball shoe to utilizing PEAK design features.

Inspiration - Shane Battier was the first NBA signature player of PEAK Sport, He is best known for his defensive skills. Battier has often been called “the ultimate glue guy” for playing sound. For ultimate performance, the shoe should have features with protection, grip, flexibility, and support.

Performance Needs - Utilize sticky rubber in the toe area to move quickly when stopping, staring, and pivoting.
Create flexibility in the forefoot area to aid with lateral movement
Insert high performing cushioning system to protect during defensive play. ( Like foot bed, midsole, outsole, etc.)

Design feature - PEAK TRI-POWER is a high performance basketball shoe which emphasizes protection, high functioning grip, and cushioning.

Outsole – Pattern design inspired from foot anatomy. By performance needs, larger pattern on toe, heel and medial side area to increase friction and smaller pattern on fore foot and lateral side area to benefit flexibility. PEAK advanced cushioning system on heel area can benefit protection and support.

Upper – Asymmetrical design emphasizes protection on lateral side and breathability on medial side. On lateral side, high density reactionary foam will be used on the quarter to benefit foot protect and stabilize. On medial side, perforated materials will be used to increase breathability. Otherwise, “V” shape band can benefit fore foot movement and flexibility and Embossed Shane Battier’s logo on ankle area.

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Design feedback by Brett Golliff:

Jason did a good job of building a story but his aesthetics could have used some balancing. You can tell he was heavily influenced by many things and created a shoe that could “do it all” but I think it could have been better if he would have picked his strongest influence and made that the key feature of his design. He referenced Herman Miller, anatomical design and an advanced cushioning system, all of those are good ideas but all of them could be focal points and heroes of the shoe. I think if he had picked one and really exploited and pushed what that influence could do to the shoe he could have come up with something very fresh and unique.

Design feedback by Trung Tran:

Jason did a good job of clearly listing three key performance needs he wanted to focus on: Protection, Traction and Cushioning. It’s good to see that he went back to those three often when explaining his concept. The V shape is said to facilitate flexibility and movement but it looks stiff because of the black high density foam. I think the choice of color could have been better and more effective to really help tell the performance story and celebrate a key part of his design.

There could have been more to the Herman Miller Inspiration. There’s more to that chair that could have been explored beyond perforation and breathability. The chair is also a good example of dynamic support, tensile strength, fit and lightweight. It would have been interesting to see how that could have carried over to the V-shape.