Nike system is ‘cool’ but can it soak up the Shox?

What lengths are you prepared to go through to redesign a product?

At last week’s launch of Nike Shox, the new suspension system that is lifted literally from the inner workings of a car engine, the sports giant revealed some of the prototypes for the new design.

While the final product’s spring-factor is produced from rubber columns rather than spirals of metal, clearly, as this picture shows, the design team at its US Nike Sports Research Lab was heading in the metal direction. Luckily for Nike-sponsored sprinter Maurice Green, its 16 years of research resulted in a more practical product. Green even paid Nike Shox the ultimate tribute, describing them as ‘cool’.