瘋狂英語閱讀:Sports Life of Adidas

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Sports Life of Adidas
    Sports Life of Adidas
    Over eighty years ago, in 1)Herzegovina, Germany, a young shoemaker made house-slippers from old military canvas bags to help put food on his family’s table. He was also a keen soccer player, and he soon adapted those slippers to his soccer game. The attention he gained for his 2)lightweight, comfortable sport shoes, did nothing but grow from the first day he wore them. His name was Adi Dassler.
    By the 1920’s, Adi Dassler was already experimenting with running 3)spikes to improve performance. By the 1930’s he was the leading sports shoe manufacturer in the world, making thirty different shoes for eleven sports. And the tradition of innovation continues to the present day.
    Adidas came up with “Mi Adidas”, a traveling program that lets you be properly fitted in a way that has never been possible before. You have your foot measured and scanned to get a detailed outline of the exact length and width of each foot, to within one tenth of a centimeter. Next, you lightly jog across a pressure pad, which reveals the exact placement of the foot under pressure. That information goes into a computer, to help narrow down the best shoe for you. Now you try on a “dummy boot”, to make sure that the width, arch fitting, and tightness are exactly to your liking. After you’ve made your decision, you’ll just have to wait three weeks, while they create your dream 4)sneaker.
    Most sports shoe production has shifted to Asia. But Adidas has a specialized production facility in Germany, that creates new models of 5)prototypes, as well as custom shoes, for some of the most valuable feet in the world – professional athletes. To make a custom shoe, they create an outline of the foot, a 3-D 6)foam 7)imprint, and then take several measurements of the foot. About twelve workers, in Scheinfeld, make four hundred pairs of made-to-measure shoes each month for the world’s best athletes.
    Renata Urban (Asst. Manager, Adidas Global Training Center): One of the most famous athletes, especially in Europe, is football player David Beckham. We’ve had a lot of shoes made for him last year during the World Cup. And, well, his feet are quite close to a standard size, so, the made-to-measure docks for David Beckham is not too much amended. But he has very individualized shoes, with the name embroidered in the tongue and the player’s number on the heel patch, and some different amendments from time to time.
    But it’s not just athletes who need comfortable shoes. Anyone, who’s prepared to pay, can get Adidas made to measure.
    Adi Dassler’s shoe made its Olympic appearance in 1928, and ever since then, athletes have wanted more from their footwear, whether they’re wrestlers, or fencers, or sprinters, or long-distance runners, or even 8)bobsledders. What they have on their foot changes how well they can perform.
    Tom Kennedy (Global Public Relations Manager, Adidas): The interesting thing maybe about the most recent Olympics in Sydney, was that they made shoes for 26 of 28 Olympic sports. They had shoes in almost every sport imaginable except for sailing and, 9)equestrian. In something like fencing, for example, if you look at them you can see they’re actually two different shoes, because when a fencer stands, they stand with their feet perpendicular to each other, uh, and so they’ve made modifications. This shoe actually is built at an angle because, when they 10)lunge, the foot actually collapses inward, like this, so it helps them push better. This shoe is more 11)cushioned in the heel because when they attack, they land quite hard on their heel, so there’s all kinds of modifications and things built into these shoes that make them quite specialized for their task.
    So you can see that if you’re going to go into a store and just ask for what size they have, you’re probably not going to be able to take advantage of all the technology available. It’s best to go to someone who really knows what’s in the shoe and what’s best for you. Sometimes it’s more important to have a good athletic shoe than it is a street shoe, because it has to put up with a lot more.
    But it needn’t be out of your financial reach. While custom-made shoes for Olympic athletes can range up to $800, the “Mi Adidas” program offers many of the same custom features for an average retail price.
    注釋:
    1) Herzegovina [7hZEtsE^Eu5vi:nE] n. 黑塞哥維那(原為土耳其在歐洲南部的一省,1878~1914為奧匈帝國的一部分,現(xiàn)為南斯拉夫的波斯尼亞-黑塞哥維那共和國的一部分)
    2) lightweight [5laitweit] a. 輕量的,輕質(zhì)的
    3) spike [spaik] n. 釘鞋
    4) sneaker [5sni:kE] n. 運動鞋
    5) prototype [5prEutEtaip] n. 原型
    6) foam [fEum] n. 泡沫
    7) imprint [im5print] n. 壓痕;印記
    8) bobsledder [5bCbsledE] n. 滑大雪橇比賽的人
    9) equestrian [i5kwestriEn] n. 馬術(shù)
    10) lunge [lQndV] v. 刺,刺進
    11) cushion [5kuFEn] v. 加襯墊
    阿迪達斯:青春無極限
    八十多年前,德國的黑塞哥維那有一位年輕的鞋匠,他經(jīng)常拿舊軍用帆布袋縫制家用拖鞋以養(yǎng)家糊口。他還特喜歡踢足球,不久,他就改裝了那些拖鞋,使它們在足球場上派上了用場。從穿上自制球鞋的第一天起,他制作的既輕便又舒適的球鞋就越來越多地受到人們的關(guān)注。這個人便是阿迪·達斯拉。
    早在二十世紀二十年代,阿迪·達斯拉就已經(jīng)在試驗釘鞋以提高奔跑速度。到了三十年代,他成了世界的運動鞋制造商,制作的鞋多達三十種,適用于十一項運動,其追求創(chuàng)新的風格一直延續(xù)到今日。
    阿迪達斯推出了“我的阿迪達斯”巡回銷售活動,破天荒地為個人量身訂做運動鞋。首先,工作人員會對你的腳進行測量和掃描,以取得每只腳長、寬的數(shù)值,這些數(shù)值準確至0.1厘米。然后,他們會讓你輕跑著踏過一塊壓力板,以便對受壓狀態(tài)下的腳掌受壓狀況進行準確定位。所有測量信息一并匯入電腦,以求找出樣式?,F(xiàn)在就試試“樣鞋”吧,看看寬度、弓度、緊度合不合心意。一旦敲定,只需等待三個星期,你的夢幻運動鞋就能出爐了!
    阿迪達斯的大多數(shù)鞋廠都已遷至亞洲,但在德國還保留著一家專業(yè)生產(chǎn)機構(gòu),專為世界職業(yè)運動員的那些極其名貴的腳研制最新款式及訂做運動鞋。在制造訂做鞋之前,他們先用泡沫塑料為腳的輪廓打造一個三維模型,隨后再丈量腳的每一部分的尺寸。在沙因菲爾德,大約十二名工人在一個月里能為世界運動員制做四百雙這樣的鞋。
    雷娜塔·厄本(阿迪達斯全球訓練中心助理經(jīng)理):其中一位在歐洲尤為受歡迎的知名運動員,就是足球明星大衛(wèi)·貝克漢姆。去年“世界杯”期間我們就為他做了許多雙鞋。不過他的腳極為接近標準尺碼,所以為大衛(wèi)·貝克漢姆做鞋,車床無需做太大改變。不過他對鞋的要求倒是極為個性化:鞋舌上要繡上他的名字,鞋后跟要印上球員號碼,而且這些要求時不時還會變動。
    然而并不是只有運動員才需要舒適的鞋子,任何人,只要愿意掏腰包,都可以買到量身訂做的阿迪達斯。
    阿迪·達斯拉的鞋首次亮相于奧運會是在1928年,從那時起,運動員對鞋的要求越來越高。無論是摔跤、擊劍,還是短跑、長跑,乃至滑大雪橇比賽,運動員穿的鞋直接影響他們的表現(xiàn)。
    湯姆·肯尼迪(阿迪達斯全球公關(guān)經(jīng)理):有趣的是,在上屆的悉尼奧運會上,他們總共為28個奧運比賽項目中的26個項目的參賽運動員制作了運動鞋,除帆船比賽和馬術(shù)比賽,幾乎包含了所有運動項目。以擊劍為例,仔細觀察不難發(fā)現(xiàn),擊劍選手的兩只鞋子各不相同,因為當擊劍手直立時,他的雙腳要成直角,所以工人們相應(yīng)地對鞋作了改良。這邊的鞋有一個彎度,因為當擊劍手向前刺時,這只腳會像這樣往內(nèi)傾,這樣設(shè)計的鞋便能幫助他們向前推進;而這只鞋的跟墊加厚了,因為他們進攻時,腳跟著地用力較大。所以,對這些鞋做出這樣那樣的改動,都是為了讓它們更適合該項運動。
    因此,如果你走進一家鞋店,只是詢問他們有什么樣的鞋碼,你是難以體驗當今所有的科技進步給運動鞋帶來的優(yōu)勢,只有到真正知道鞋里有什么、什么最適合你的人那里才是明智之選。有時候買雙好的運動鞋比買雙逛街穿的鞋更重要,因為它要承受的壓力實在太多。
    但也不一定非要讓你出大價錢,才能擁有這樣的鞋。雖說為奧運健兒訂做的鞋,售價可達800美元,但“我的阿迪達斯”銷售活動為消費者提供的運動鞋,其價位只是普通的零售價,但卻具有訂做鞋的特色。