Asics Opens Sports Science Facility in France to Record Tennis Player Movements for Footwear Design

Asics opened a new sports-science site in France that will record player movements on a force-plate tennis court to inform future footwear design. The site includes a technology-equipped tennis court built with HumanFab that uses force plates to record player movement. Swiss player Belinda Bencic visited the facility shortly after its opening.

Mitsuyuki Tominaga, Asics president and COO, said the company chose France so athletes would not need to travel to the firm’s headquarters in Kobe, Japan. “Tennis is important. It is growing,” Tominaga said.

He added that Asics will apply Kaizen-style incremental improvements to future generations of tennis shoes and will examine how footwear interacts with the entire body, including injury-prevention data. ” He noted that Asics can now combine existing footwear-response measurements with new records of movement and body reaction. “It is nice to get that scientific background.

I am very much looking forward to the partnership,” Tanigaki said. Gary Raucher, Asics global head of marketing, said the company plans to apply lessons from its running category, which accounts for 45 percent of footwear sales, to tennis. Tennis is Asics’ second-largest category after running.

The brand’s stability-focused Gel-Resolution model is now in its tenth iteration, while the speed-focused Solution Speed model targets forward acceleration. Asics recently released a lifestyle-oriented remake of the Gel-Resolution 5. Raucher said the firm wants consumers to view tennis shoes as equipment chosen by playing style, similar to racket purchases.

Tanigaki said the new data give designers “a very clear pillar” for matching shoe construction to specific movement patterns. Tominaga said court sports and lifestyle products will follow running and tennis as the next areas of emphasis, with tennis history continuing to inspire Sportstyle releases.