Nike Zoom Air/Air Zoom Technology

Nike Zoom Air series are professional Nike Basketball Shoes, specially designed and made for basketball players. The representative shoes of Nike Zoom Air is Zoom Air Kobe, Zoom Air Lerbron, Nike Zoom Air Hyperdunk.
This lightweight, super-responsive, and ultra thin Air unit brings the foot closer to the ground for the ultimate feel and great maneuverability. Used primarily for basketball shoes, shoes built with the Air Zoom tend to be light and responsive with excellent "ground-feel".
The Air Zoom unit starts with two fabric layers connected by thousands of vertical fibers, each attached at both ends to a fabric layer. These fibers are then surrounded with pressurized gas inside a Nike Air unit. While the pressurized air exerts and outward force, like a full balloon, the fibers are placed in tension and exert an opposing inward force to keep the air bag from popping or bulging. On impact, the air bag compresses to relieve the tension on the fibers. After impact, the pressurize gas expands the air bag and places tension on those fibers. The fibers compress on impact and then spring back immediately. The advantage to the Air Zoom is that it is incredibly thin and light, but it provides excellent impact cushioning while allowing the wearer to feel the surface he or she is on.

Adidas and Def Jam creat the fashion of Hip Hop which has been in the domination of street culture for many years. Adidas Supperstar’s exluscive style succeeded in taking the sport culture form the ground to street. 2009 is aniversary of Adidas Originals 60 and Def Jam 25.

Apart from the shoes menstioned above, Adidas this time, released a series of shoes theme of Def Jam, including Superstar x Ghostface，Forum x Young Jeezy，Stan Smith x Method Man，Stan Smith x Method Man and Nizza x Def Jam. The main color is setted on the black and green, decorated by the bright color. This bring a distinct contrast and makes the shoes quite fasional.

Adidas Sport Shoes

Adidas Sport Shoes

Adidas Sport Shoes

Adidas Sport Shoes

Adidas Stan Smith II –Green Christmas

Now it is mid October, Adidas is making preparation for the Chirstmas Day on 25, December. This model of Stan Smith II named of “Christmas” is one of them. The green goat stands for the Christmas Tree matched perfect with golden pattern at the heel of the shoes. The “Stan Smith” is replaced by the “Seasons Greetings”. Plused the inside sole in red, the happiness of the christmas is fully showed out.

List of awards and nominations received by Linkin Park

Linkin Park is an American rock band from Agoura Hills, California. Originally consisting of three high school friends, Linkin Park’s foundation was anchored by Mike Shinoda and Brad Delson along with Rob Bourdon. After graduating from high school, the California natives began to take their musical interests more seriously, recruiting Joe Hahn, Dave "Phoenix" Farrell, and Mark Wakefield to perform in their band then titled Xero. Though limited in resources, the band began recording and producing songs within Shinoda’s make-shift bedroom studio in 1996. After they failed to land a record deal, however, tensions and frustration within the band grew, and the lack of success and stalemate in progress prompted Wakefield, at that time the band's vocalist, to leave the band in search for other projects. Farrell also left the to tour with other bands.

Linkin Park released its debut album Hybrid Theory on October 24, 2000. In 2001, the band won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Album. Linkin Park's second album Meteora sold more than 800,000 copies during its first week, and it ranked as the best selling album on the Billboard charts at the time. "Breaking the Habit", a single from the album, won an MTV Asia Award. "Somewhere I Belong", also on Meteora, won a MTV Video Music Award. After the success of Meteora, the band postponed working on a new studio album for several years. Linkin Park continued to tour and work on side projects; during the same period, Bennington appeared on DJ Lethal’s State of the Art and worked with Dead By Sunrise, while Shinoda worked with Depeche Mode. In 2004, the band worked with Jay-Z to produce an album entitled Collision Course; "Numb/Encore", a single from the album, won a Grammy Award the next year. Linkin Park's most recent album Minutes to Midnight was released in 2007 despite initially stating the album would debut in 2006. The album was nominated for a TMF Award in 2007, while "What I've Done", a single from the album, was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award. Linkin Park has recently won in the Favourite International Artist of Asia category at the 2008 MTV Asia Awards. Overall, Linkin Park has received 21 awards from 42 nominations.

History of Football Shoes

The first record of a pair of football boots occurs when Henry VIII of England ordered a pair from the Great Wardrobe in 1526. Football boots come in all different makes such as nike, adidas ,puma and umbro. Until 1891, any kind of projection on the soles or heels of football boots was strictly forbidden. The 1891 revision allowed both studs and bars, so long as they were made of leather and did not project more than half an inch. Studs had to be rounded, neither conical nor pointed and not less than half an inch in diameter. The leather studs were originally hammered into the boots on a semi-permanent basis and players would have several pairs of boots with different length studs, but in the mid-1950s Adidas introduced boots with interchangeable screw-in studs made of rubber or plastic for varying weather conditions. A lighter boot without ankle protection and resembling a studded shoe became popular in southern Europe and South America where pitches were generally harder and less muddy and this eventually became the standard style.

Timeline:

1900-1940’s: Between 1900-1940 football boots style stayed very basic because of the second world war. However, in this period of time, many famous football boot producers come about, the likes of Gola, Hummel and Valsport came about and were very popular.

1940-1960’s: After the Second World War, the designs of the football boot changed dramatically and really started to make an impact on the game. The South Americans designed a more light and more flexible boot. This design was focused on increasing good control and better kicking power rather than a more protective boot.

1960’s: In the 1960’s the football boot technology really took a huge step, which saw many football boots designed with a lower cut. These enabled the best players in Europe and South America to move faster and change direction quicker.

1970-1980’s: The 1970’s and the 1980’s saw many great advances and changes the in the football boot design. The 1970’s saw technology produce many more light boots and a variety of colours. In this decade, players started to get paid to wear a certain brand of boots. Finally in the1980’s, probably the most popular and dominant boot in the world the Adidas Predator was designed. The Predator enables you to strike with amazing power and the different stitching on the boot allows you to gain more swerve when passing or shooting.

1990-2000’s: In the 1990’s this saw football boots introduce different types of studs to increase the balance of the player. The Predators once again dominated this era and a more flexible sole was introduced. In the 2000’s laser technology was introduced to produce the first fully customized football boot.

Nike Skateboarding

In the 1980s, skateboard companies started to pop up around the globe. However, skateboarding still had a relatively small community—not enough to attract serious interests from major shoe companies, who were battling it out for precious basketball shoe territory. This gave smaller companies a chance to gain ground in the skateboarding market. Skateboarders mainly used Converse and other types of basketball shoes such as original Nike Blazer. Although Nike never officially entered the skateboarding market in the 1980s, many of its shoes gained a following in the skateboarding community because skateboarding shoes and basketball shoes share many similarities. Strong grips, durable ankle support, and relative comfort were some of the offerings that attracted skaters to Nike shoes.
The 1990s saw the rise of skateboarding into prominence and the vast improvement of skate shoe technology, with DC Shoes making major advances in shoe design. The company added stronger fabrics, multidensity rubber, gel pockets, plastic eyelets that encased exposed shoelaces, and soles with a gumlike grip that improved foot-to-board traction.
In the mid-1990s, skate shoes went mainstream. Their evolution was influenced as strongly by popular culture as by the demands of skateboarding. The loud, blocky skate shoe fell from favor as the hip-hop culture of the 1990s eventually died out. Nike started to experiment with the market by reissuing many of its older models in the late-1990s.
In 2002, after failing to enter the skateboard market, Nike came out with the SB brand not standing for skateboarding but standing for Street Bound. Nike SB had released Nike SB Dunk Lows with padded tongues and collars with the "Zoom Air" in soles to attract skateboarders to shoes similar to the padding in DC Shoes and Vans. After not selling the Dunks well, they released four other models. The Nike SB Angus, Nike SB FC, Nike SB Delta Force and Nike SB URL. Just like the Dunks these didn't sell well either.
In 2004, Nike SB tried hard to stay in the skateboarding industry so they decided to sign Paul Rodriguez. to give more fame to the Nike SB name.
In 2005, Nike SB gave Paul Rodriguez his own pro model shoe named the Nike SB P-Rod. After selling Nike SB's star shoe, it gave the company some recognition to the skateboarding market. That same year one of Nike SB's spokespersons, Lance Mountain, decided to release the Nike Blazer SB, a suped-up version of the Nike Blazer basketball shoe from the early 1970's. They named it the Nike SB Blazer and added a few new features such as the padded collar and "Zoom Air" in soles.
Ever since signing Paul Rodriguez, it gave Nike SB a whole new look by selling more shoes and making other shoe models successful such as the Nike SB Tre and P-Rod II besides the ordinary Nike SB line. There are many Nike SB shoes that have collectible value or limited release such as the Nike SB "What The Dunk" Dunks and the Nike SB "Tiffany" Dunks that were being bought by non-skaters and being resold for prices that were much greater than the MSRP.
Nike SB released their first video entitled "Nothing But The Truth" in 2007. The video consisted all the Nike SB Pros, Ams and some of the Flow riders.

Russia tables bid to be World Cup hosts

Russia has officially launched its bid to host the World Cup in either 2018 or 2022.

Sports minister Vitaly Mutko, also president of the Russian Football Union, presented the bid at its official launch at GUM department store, located on Red Square in one of Moscow's most iconic buildings.

England are also in the running along with Australia, USA, Japan and joint campaigns from Spain/Portugal and Holland/Belgium, but Mutko is hopeful a successful Russia bid would "inspire Eastern Europe''.

"This is an important initiative, not only for football, but for the entire nation,'' he said on www.russia2018-2022.com. "Hosting the World Cup will have a positive impact upon many millions of Russian youth and create a legacy of sporting, economic and personal growth through football.

"Russia opens up a historic choice to FIFA as it represents a host country from the former Soviet bloc to inspire Eastern Europe. It also gives the opportunity to place the 2018/2022 World Cup in a country blending the best of Europe and Asia, offering fans a compelling, exciting host country that is known for its traditional hospitality.

"In recent years, Russia has been very much about football. Along with the Olympic Games, it is one of the most important projects in the world. To host this tournament is a great honour and responsibility.''

The Russians will present a 1,200-word document to FIFA on May 14 next year, with the world governing body set to decide on the host nations for both 2018 and 2022 in December 2010.

Mutko added: "The main thing (is) that we can use the results of the work to be done to improve the infrastructure, the development of football. We have great respect for all applicants.''