Shoe
Sleuth
Barry Bates’
foot research
makes waves
THE RUN
NERS PAUSE to
gaze at the vast
array of shoes
displayed in the
store — dozens
of models are
enticingly arranged to lure the
athlete to buy.
"All the shoes on the market
today are better than the best on
the market five years ago,” says
Barry Bates, University physical
education professor.
Bates has been studying
shoes for the last several years.
But his original research was
about feet — and he insists that
any research about shoes must
have a basis in feet. Bates
researched foot problems for
four years before he began work
ing with shoes.
In 1976, with the help of a
grant from the Northwest Area
Foundation, Bates began
seriously working on research
about feet and developed the
Biomechanics Laboratory at the
University.
"We decided no one knew
anything about running ahoes
and feet,” he says.
The shoe has to do two major
functions — reduce shock and
provide control for the foot. The
problem is that these two func
tions appear to be inversely
related. When one improves, the
other suffers.
“A fairly substantial number
of injuries directly or indirectly
relate to shoes,” he says.
According to Bates, about 25
percent to 30 percent of injuries
are caused by shock related pro
blems and about 65 percent to
70 percent are related to control.
In the late 1970s, most of the
shoes produced had great shock
absorption, but the control suf
fered and injuries went up.
Two philosophies of how to
evaluate shoes exist —
Any research about shoes must have a basis in foot research, says
University Prof. Barry Bates.
mechanical and biomechanical.
Mechanical methods involve
machines testing shoes and is
used commonly by Runner’s
World Magazine in their ratings
of running shoes.
Bates prefers the
biomechanical way, even though
it is more time consuming and
expensive.
“We have to start with the in
dividuals,” he says.
Biomechanical testing in
volves runners using the shoes
and rating them instead of strict
ly limiting tests to machines.
To examine how shoes in
teract with feet, Bates has
athletes run across a force plat
form wearing different shoes
and running at different speeds.
The force platform is hooked to
a computer which can tell how
much force is used in different
shoes.
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Another important method
Bates uses is examining single
frames of high speed film (about
100 to 200 frames per second).
The average speed of a home
movie is about 24 frames per se
cond. By slowing the motion
down so much, it is possible to
analyze exactly how people run
and to see why they get injured.
“But the primary function of
the shoes is to prevent injury,"
he says.
But there is a catch—22.
While the most important
thing about a shoe is injury
prevention and enhacing perfor
mance, comfort is often the
number one consideration of the
buyer.
Bates currently works for
Tiger Shoe Co., a Japanese cor
poration. He does basic
research — what he would be
Continued on Page 8B
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