A Closer Look at the Nike Adapt BB

The future of basketball sneakers has arrived. Earlier today Nike Basketball unveiled their first-ever auto-lacing basketball shoe, the Nike Adapt BB.

The Nike Adapt BB is designed to give you a customized, consistent fit as it adapts to your foot to provide a locked-in feel for distraction-free play. The Nike Adapt BB can be paired up with the Nike Adapt app to fine-tune the fit and customize the features from your smartphone.

“We picked basketball as the first sport for Nike Adapt intentionally because of the demands that athletes put on their shoes,” says Eric Avar, Nike VP Creative Director of Innovation. “During a normal basketball game the athlete’s foot changes and the ability to quickly change your fit by loosening your shoe to increase blood flow and then tighten again for performance is a key element that we believe will improve the athlete’s experience.”

How The Shoe Works

When a player steps into the Nike Adapt BB, a custom motor and gear train senses the tension needed by the foot and adjusts accordingly to keep the foot snug. The tensile strength of the underfoot lacing is able to pull 32 pounds of force (roughly equal to that of a standard parachute cord) to secure the foot throughout a range of movement.

That’s where the brain, or FitAdapt tech, kicks in. By manual touch or by using the Nike Adapt app on a smartphone, players can input different fit settings depending on different moments of a game. For example, during a timeout, a player can loosen the shoe before tightening it up as they re-enter the game. In a forthcoming feature, they can even prescribe a different tightness setting for warm-ups. Plus, players can opt in to firmware updates for the FitAdapt technology as they become available, sharpening the precision of fit for players and providing new digital services over time.

How It Was Tested

Similar to the HyperAdapt 1.0, the Nike Adapt BB was put through a gauntlet of tests, including impact tests, intense temperatures, end-of-life tests that lasted tens of thousands of cycles long, waterproof tests to simulate the sweatiest feet and more.

Here’s how Nike researchers put a typical Adapt BB through its paces to make it the most tested shoe in Nike’s history:

“Being one of the first athletes to wear the shoe and being picked as a representative of the future of Nike basketball means a lot. That the app allows the ability to put the shoe on and touch the button, change the colors, see the percentage on the battery…it’s just cool.” – Jayson Tatum

Where It’s Headed

Nike Adapt BB is the first continually updated performance product from Nike due to the near-symbiotic relationship between the shoe’s digital app and the shoe’s opt-in firmware updates. As the FitAdapt system hones the quality of fit in basketball, the next step will be to bring FitAdapt to other sports and lifestyle products, each with unique demands for fit in different environments.

Look for the Nike Adapt BB to release on February 17th at select Nike Basketball retailers and Nike SNKRS for the retail price of 350€.

Via Kicksonfire