Nike's Strobe Gaining Popularity

"A number of athletes at Athletic Republic-Libertyville’s training center — high school, college, professional or even middle school — are wearing what look like cool sunglasses. But what they’re really wearing is Nike SPARQ Vapor Strobe eyewear," according to a Mundelein Review post. "The strobe eyewear helps athletes enhance their sensory and sensory motor skills when used with specific training methods conducted by Athletic Republic." Read more.

Vision Center Teams Up with Nike SPARQ

"Val Vista Vision in Gilbert has teamed up with Nike to offer an advanced vision training technology to improve athletes' visual skills," reports AZCentral. "Called SPARQ Sensory Performance Training, the program begins with a 30-minute test to evaluate 10 skills: visual clarity, contrast sensitivity, depth perception, near-far quickness, target capture, perception span, eye-hand coordination, decision-making, hand reaction time and visual endurance. A custom profile is generated and compares an athlete's results to other athletes at their sport, position, and skill level in order to determine existing strengths and weaknesses and develop an improvement plan." Read more. More information on the Nike training program can be found here.

Nike's Strobe Sunglasses Interpret Field Info--Reportedly

"Nike on Thursday unveiled the SPARQ Vapor Strobe Eyewear -- a pair of wraparound sunglasses that re-create the effect of an intense strobe light show at a rock concert," reports the Oregonian. "The effect is intended to help athletes better interpret information on a playing field and the glasses, Nike officials said, have been part of Oregon quarterbacks on-field practice arsenal for about four years. The Oregon-based footwear and apparel company also introduced a series of video vision tests that could be characterized as elaborate, high-tech versions of whack-a-mole."  Read more. You can read more about the eyewear at the 4traders.com site.

View full sizeBruce Ely / The OregonianJermaine Smith, a model, demonstrates the 3-D Body Scanner that allows Nike to develop form-fitting uniforms. Nike showed off the scanner Thursday, the day of its annual football products presentation. Senior technical designer Meg Okies looks on. Read more.