May 8, 2018 8:38 pm

Discover More About Basketball Shoe Technology with Julius Erving, Ray Allen, and Rasheed Wallace

On this week’s episode of Playing with Science we look at the past, present, and future of basketball shoe technology. In part two of our basketball mini-series, hosts Chuck Nice and Gary O’Reilly are once again discussing their time at Nike’s “Art of A Champion” event – an event that commemorated the 16 rounds of the NBA playoffs with shoes that honored the past and influenced the future. (If you missed it, catch up to the first episode in this series here: NBA – Evolution of the Game, with Julius Erving, Rasheed Wallace, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.)

The great part about being at this event, like I said last week, was that it was peppered with NBA greats. Last week we got to chat with Julius “Dr. J” Erving and Rasheed Wallace and this week we pick up right where we left off. However, we add one more NBA great to our epic line-up of guests: Ray Allen.

Before we hear from our All-Stars, we first hear from Jon Garon, Global Product Line Manager for Converse on a little bit of history behind some of the most famous shoes of all time – Chuck Taylors. We also hear about the man Chuck Taylor himself and how he revolutionized modern basketball shoe technology (the Converse patch on the shoe serves a purpose other than looking great).

After that, Dr. J takes us behind-the-scenes of getting his customized shoes made during his playing years and how that’s influenced players today who work alongside companies to make the best product.

Ray Allen then takes us through the Jordan 28 “Locked and Loaded” – another mind-bending stylistic endeavor created by the Jordan brand to honor Ray’s 2013 NBA Finals performance. You’ll also hear why Rasheed always wore Nike Air Force 1s, typically an off-court shoe, on the court.

Last, but not least, we explore the world of sneaker collecting, we hear from Jon about the impact of 3D printing, and we also ponder if “re-inventing the barefoot” is the holy grail of shoe performance.

Please join us tomorrow night at 7pm ET for Basketball Shoe Technology, with Julius Erving, Ray Allen, and Rasheed Wallace right here on our website, as well as on our Playing with Science channels on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and TuneIn. If you’re an All-Access subscriber, you can watch or listen to this episode ad-free.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!
–Ian Mullen