According to Wired.com, the feet of The Blessed Individual have been racking up Heisman-worthy yards not in any plain old sneakers, but in Under Armour’s super-secret Nitro CompFit cleats.
The cleats incorporate a neoprene compression sleeve which surrounds the ankle to give protect the athlete from twisting or spraining the joint. UA’s director of on-field footwear, Josh Rattet, told Wired.com that the cleat’s goal is to maximize ankle protection while minimizing its weight: “How do we give the athlete an advantage of the security of a mid-cut but in a low-top solution?”
Indeed, the shoe is a low-top, a style that lacks ankle protection and is typically avoided by athletes who play sports involving quick, cutting movements. According to the University of Illinois’ McKinley Health Center, 85 percent of all ankle injuries are lateral sprains, usually caused by the foot rolling inward. The Nitro CompFit decreases the odds of that happening by working with the cleat’s shoelace system to form a tight fit up to just above the ankle.
Don’t try to buy them. You can’t – not yet, anyway. Cam Newton, however, has had them since the Ole Miss game.
Boy, here is one of those things that Dennis VanDerGinst tends to get all up in arms about…