RELATED CONTENT

 

U.S. Olympic Runner Lopez Lomong competing in Nike Vision.

NEW YORK— Nike Vision knows what it is doing when it comes to getting Olympic runners on the right ‘track.’

According to Jacie Prieto, Nike’s media relations manager, Nike Vision products are favored by many in
track-and-field; two of which are Olympic track-and-field-stars, long-distance runners Paula Radcliffe from the U.S. and Kara Goucher of the U.S.

Nike performed extensive testing and research with athletes before final production and several of these athletes, like Radcliffe, trained with the Impel Swift in the summer of 2007. Allowing athletes the opportunity to try the style out before manufacturing it for the public meant Nike Vision had the opportunity to tweak the style before bringing it to the market in 2008.

Nike Vision has also made a new technological advancement available to athletes, Olympic and casual alike, who are looking for an edge in the MaxAdapt photo-chromic lens tint. The MaxAdapt lens darkens or lightens to adapt to the amount of ultraviolet light and was tested under various global conditions, with the knowledge that Beijing “was going to be a unique environment that required special attention,” Prieto said.

The MaxAdapt tint joins the Nike Max Speed tint, a performance-specific lens tints developed for endurance sports like running. According to Prieto, by allowing a specific amount of red light through the lens, the tint helps relax the athlete’s eyes, and prevent fatigue.

Nike Vision often pairs these special lenses with an 8-base sport wrap that incorporates Max Optics. According to Prieto, Max Optics gives an athlete precise vision from all points of the lens, even the peripheral, and virtually eliminates distortion. To prevent fogging of the lenses, Nike uses “flying lens technology” and a ventilated rubber nose-piece that doesn’t block airflow over the nose. They also minimize the frame design as much as possible in order to give the athlete an unobstructed view.

Nike Vision’s continuing research focuses on the specific needs of different sports. “We are constantly researching the nuances involved with each sport such as environment and colors, vision patterns when using sport-specific equipment, duration of the game, stabilization and coverage needs and customization,” concluded Prieto. “We want to continue our research in understanding how to filter out not only bad UV light but ‘visual noise’ that can potentially distract athletes, and to allow ‘good’ lights from the color spectrum through appropriately, to enhance the visual experience in specific sports environments and improve performance.”