Dr. Ed Tori (speaker) describes how switching to Adidas MADhandle basketball shoes dramatically improved his grip and on-court performance within a single game. He links the shoe's outsole design to biomimicry — specifically the pad of a gecko's foot — and recommends the shoes to other players, disclosing a possible affiliate commission for provided links.
Questions this video answers
Dr. Ed Tori
Adidas MADhandle
Chapters
Hey, this is Dr. Tory. Okay? Now, this is not the usual video for me, but this is simply too awesome. Not to mention. And that is. You remember when you were a little kid and you got these new shoes and you thought, like, you could run faster because of the shoes? Well, I joined a men's basketball league for men my age, and I started playing. In the first three games, I was sliding past people on defense. I was sliding instead of cutting when I went to do a breakaway layup or something, and. And I just kept slipping and sliding. And I noticed other people sliding a little bit. But we couldn't attribute it just to, like, the dust on the floor or whatever. We would clean the floors. I would wet the bottom of my shoe. I would do all the normal stuff that we would do to sort of try to increase the grip, right? So I went to my wife. I was like, something's wrong. I just gotta get new basketball shoes. So I went to a regular sporting goods store, and I started looking around, and I was looking at sort of the shape, how they had tighter insteps. I was looking at, you know, which ones had bubble, how light they were, all that stuff. And I was sort of looking at all these features. And then I flipped over one shoe and I looked at the grip and immediately thought of the pad of a gecko's fingers, right? So I don't know if you've ever seen in the bottom of a gecko's feet are the grip that they have actually helps them walk up walls or glass or those sort of things. And so scientists and engineers have borrowed from it what they call biomimicry. And they mimicked nature because nature had solved this problem so well, meaning the ability to walk up walls or walk up glass because the gecko, the pad of a gecko's foot had worked so well in nature, they borrowed it and brought it to robotics. So they have robots going up walls and other things, right? So the way to get a good grip, where you can get a good firm grip to hold a heavy weight, but also be able to let go when the time comes to let go. So. So since geckos had solved that problem sort of indirectly, really, since they have a solution to the problem, engineers borrowed it. So when I flipped over this shoe, I thought, this looks like the pad of a gecko's foot. So I thought, you know what? I'm getting this one because I bet this works, right? Well, the name of the shoe was the Adidas Mad handle, okay? Mad Handle. Like, great grip, right? I'm not kidding. Right after my first game back, two people came up to me separately and said, what happened to your game? You are a completely different player. What did you do? Did you. I mean, was it supplements? Was it energy drinks? What? Was it what? Your entire game changed. And I said, you're not going to believe this, but it's the shoes. And I showed them and I told them all about the gecko pad, you know, their finger pads and how they're used for good grip. I'm telling you. Adidas Madhandle. Amazing. Now, again, normally I would not advocate for some big brand product or something like that and provide a link to that sort of thing, but I am, because this was completely awesome. Like, I thought I felt like I was a kid again. Right. Well, I provide a link here. This, this link. I could earn commission if you do click through. So I want to be completely transparent about that. You don't necessarily have to do that. You can go to Amazon or your sporting goods store or whatever it called. Adidas MAD handle. I do not have a personal relationship with Adidas in any way, shape or form, but I'm telling you, that shoe is awesome. So I recommend it. If you play basketball, try the Adidas MAD handle.
