Wednesday 31 March 2010

The next generation of trainers


This month adidas have taken an Avatar-esque step into the unknown by launching trainers that come with their own explorable 3D world. A select range of adidas originals trainers will come with augmented reality coding on the tongue which, when used in conjunction with the adidas website, creates a full on virtual space.

Usage wise they are very simple - turn on your webcam, go to the website, and use your trainer as the remote.

In the coming months three further environments will be released for the shoes, check out the below link for two videos that explain all!



Friday 5 March 2010

England - good, but not great

England vs Egypt - not exactly an automatic headline creator.

This would be what anyone who has been hibernating for the past three months would say. But actually the lead up to this game couldn't be more intriguing;

- a new vice Captain (Steven Gerrard) takes the reins from the new Captain (Rio Ferdinand) who displaced the incumbent (John Terry)
- JTs Chelsea are locked with Rio's Man Utd in the closest Premier League battle in years where anyone seems to be able to beat anyone
- Staying on JT theme, the England squad does not contain an internationally experienced left back and the defence looks more dodgy than it has in a long time
- A wide selection of inconsistent wingers is giving Capello a headache over who to play and where to play them
- No solid front two seems to be able to have a run of games, whether that be through injury or form. Rooney is the first name on the team sheet but who plays with him?

Add these into the fact it is a World Cup Year and actually the second last friendly before football's ultimate showpiece is actually a really important match up. Overall the game was good to watch but it didn't actually answer any questions. England triumphed but it was laboured and they probably posed more questions than they answered.

Terry and Upson were generally poor with JT obviously exposed by pace and the West Ham defender Upson looking very nervous. Leighton Baines is very underated and looked quite assured at left back but just doesn't have the experience to go up against the best teams in the World. Wes Brown, although competant, is no Glen Johnson going forward and isn't spectacular in his own penalty area so was there due to other players being injured. Lampard, Gerrard, Barry and Carrick all played a part in the England midfield during the game with Carrick probably standing out the most due to his superb ball distribution. Up front, Rooney and Defoe started and generally looked quite blunt. Crouch came on and showed why he should definitely be on the plane, but I'm pretty sure Capello knew this already. Carlton Cole had around five minutes so didn't really have a chance to do anything. So from this group, aside from Baines, Capello didn't really see anything new.

What the game did do was raise England's problem on the flanks. By my reckoning there are 8 wingers who could go to South Africa, all with their own positives and negatives. The image below shows them all and the next two months will be key for thiese player in particular to secure their spots in Fabio's final 23.