As I nervously laced up my custom built Asics running flats last week prior to my 18 mile tempo run I could not help but smile to myself as I thought I am living every kids dream. As a kid growing up I was sports mad. When I wasn’t forced to go to school I did nothing but play sports or watch sports on tv. At that time professional basketball players were just starting to come out with their own custom built shoes that were becoming available to the general public. I remember wanting a pair of Air Jordan’s but not having anywhere near the bills I needed to sport them. I always dreamed of what it would be like to have my own shoe. Now I know.
Ever since I signed with Asics in 2005 I had heard stories about the Asics Research and Development Center in Kobe, Japan and the special custom shoes that were being turned out for their athletes. This past spring I had the opportunity to take a two-day trip to Kobe and get a pair of my own shoes built. The trip opened up my mind to what all goes into making a custom pair of shoes and ultimately made me glad I wasn’t wearing someone else’s custom shoes when I was a kid.
Going to the Asics R&D center I knew that they would measure my foot a couple of different ways using cutting edge technology, however I wasn’t prepared for all that my 36 hour trip would involve. I had no idea what goes into making my shoes. There were about seven different experts that I met with throughout the day. Some measured my leg lengths, some measured my arch using a high tech devise that will be available to the pubic in the new Asics store about to open in New York in a few weeks. Then there were a couple stations that I had to be physically put to the test. They had me perform all out leg exercises so they could take into account my leg strength ratio and my strength in relation to other marathoners. The test that I personally liked the best was a running test where I literally ran through the middle of the building on a indoor/outdoor track that runs in and out of the building, landing on plates that measured my ground impact force and reaction time.
At the end of my testing they sat me down and went over all my running mechanics, giving me strengthening and stretching tips. What I love about the Japanese is that they tell you how it is. So when they respectfully told me that I “ran like a girl” I wasn’t too surprised and tried to take it in stride. If I didn’t get it by now that they were only doing everything in there power to make me better I never would. I thought I was flying half way around the world to get a pair of shoes made but with a company with a slogan of “A Sound Mind in a Sound Body” I should have known I would be getting much, much more than a pair of shoes.
After a hard day at the office I enjoyed some traditional Japanese hospitality when we went to get my first taste of Kobe steak. I can’t even begin to describe how good Kobe steak is. You have to go there and try it for yourself. Before catching my afternoon flight the next day I had to opportunity to visit the Asics Global Headquarters and meet the faces that make up Asics. I met many enthusiastic employees but my highlight had to be meeting with the President, Chairmen and other VIPs from the Global Office. I admit that I was pretty nervous as they ushered us in to a leather chair lounge for our meeting. I got even more nervous when I saw the barrage of suited men walking toward me as I took inventory of my attire, or lack there of. They were very gracious as we exchanged hellos and found our seats. Then the Chairmen said something that I was least expecting, “your wife is so beautiful.” Instantly all the tension in my body melted away as I thought to myself I can’t wait to tell Sara about this one.
I left Kobe knowing that the first time I race a marathon, at the 2009 ING NYC marathon, in my new custom designed racing shoes I will have no doubt that I am in the perfect shoes for me. The experts at Asics took everything that makes me who I am and made a shoe around that. It is easy to take a mold of a foot and make a shoe around it, it is another thing to design a shoe around an entire body, which is exactly what my shoe is. My shoe is not just a customized shoe it a customized extension of me.
It took about six weeks till I came home one day from practice to find the very normal looking package waiting for me outside my door that I had been waiting for since my youth. I knew it would take time to make my shoes because I saw the workers putting the finishing touches on one of my buddies pairs of track spikes. It is pretty cool that when I lace up my shoes before the NYC marathon I will see all the faces behind the shoe, from the woman who is responsible for bunching the holes, to the technician who analyzed my stride impact force, to the Chairmen who acknowledges my wife’s good looks, I will feel their support in more ways than through my shoes absorbing the tough roads of New York.
