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UD-developed hinged skate boot praised
3:27 p.m., April 13, 2006--Figure skating phenom Alissa Czisny spun and jumped around the Fred Rust Ice Arena Monday, but all eyes were on her feet. Czisny was wearing the new Jackson Ultima Skate Company ProFlex hinged boot skate, born in the UD Performance Lab just a few steps behind the arena. The skate boot, with a control button the size of a roller-skate wheel protruding from the back, moves with the ankles to reduce stress fractures. Developed by James G. Richards, Distinguished Professor of Health, Nutrition and Exercise Sciences, the skate employs a gel tongue, padded innards, and strategically placed hinges to help allay the shock skaters' feet absorb when they jump 50 to 100 times a day in their skates. Champion skaters and top coaches are looking at the ProFlex because skating injuries have risen since traditional figure skating was replaced by ice acrobatics in the 1990s. Younger and younger skaters are experiencing stress fractures to their bones and cartilage and former skaters barely out of their 20s are reporting joint stress and hip injuries. “It's hard to imagine any sport or dance being done in a stiff shoe with a high heel,” Dr. Angela Smith, an orthopedist and competitive figure skater who praised Richards' design, said. Richards used graphs to demonstrate how his hinged system significantly reduces the damaging impact forces of jump landing, which can spike to five times the skater's body weight. He said a trained skater landing properly could cut the peak force on his feet by 47.48 percent compared with the standard boots.Coach Priscilla Hill lauded Richards' design, although she said she can't get her star pupil Johnny Weir to don them. “He doesn't want to change his skates right now. He feels like they work. I'd have everybody in it, though. I love it. From all the kids who have been in it, it's doing what it's designed to do,” she said.
Hill said she's trying to get her younger skaters into ProFlex because it will keep skaters healthier and the boots allow some moves stiffer boots don't. “They already allow you to do so many more things than a regular boot, and we're just on the tip of the iceberg,” she said. Suzanne Allen, who drove her 9-year-old daughter Christine from Reston, Va., to be part of the exhibition, said Christine's $750 ProFlex boots allay her fears of skating injuries. “As a parent, we chose them because of the technology. They absorb the shock. We don't want her to have knee or hip problems,” she said. Skater Oliver Yost said he was sidelined with acute tendonitis that occurred every time he laced up his skates but, three days after donning ProFlex boots for the first time, he was skating comfortably. The boots felt more like shoes than traditional skates, he said. The ProFlex custom boots from the company's professional collection retail for $500, and blades can add $200 to $600 to the price tag. Wayne Schagena, vice president of sales for Jackson Ultima, said the company eventually would like to make a ProFlex boot at a lower price point to make the technology available to more skaters. Article by Kathy Canavan
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