Thanks for all the great comments everyone. FYI, I have just updated the blog with some fresh content, including another part of the ongoing 6.2 Concept FG case study. Also just in, pics of FC Barcelona Asst. Trainer Henk Ten Cate in hummel boots! FC Barcelona is in Aarhus now training and I attended the closed session yesterday. check out the pics. Richard first pullover footwear design/development blog
I am Canadian, but now live in Denmark (home of hummel International). as for testing (as i've posted in the cleat testing thread), currently we test only in a very limited programme with our pro and semi-pro teams and players here in Denmark, and a few other select teams worldwide where we have connections to clubs/players. in the future, however we are looking at the possibility of expanding our tetsing program and maybe opening up a worldwide testing programme that people can apply for. in any case, a testing program is very important to ensure boots are top quality, and requires lots of work and record-keeping by all testers. Cheers, Richard first pullover footwear design/development blog
One problem with Hummel I've seen is availability. I received the 2005 Hummel catalog in the mail and found much in it to like. In particular, the Thomasson Anywhere indoor shoes. So named, presumably, because you cannot find them "Anywhere". Just kidding, but my question is, for 06, can Mr. Kuchinsky give us some idea of the Indoor line of boots. Any lightweight minimalist models among them? I play indoor exclusively these days. Thanks
I assume you are in the US. Yes, to date, we have been working very hard on increasing the visibilty and availability of hummel products. Particularily indoor shoes as you mentioned I am sure are difficult to find. We are always improving and for sure for 2006, in general there will be better availability. Still, the best way to ensure availability is to ask your retailer about hummel. The more requests they get, the better the chance of carrying our products in the future. As for Indoor sheos for 2006, we actually do have 1 brand new specific indoor (Sala/Futsal/Indoor football) model, in addition to indoor versions of some of our top shoes. I'll work on posting some pics later on my blog. stay tuned. thanks for the request. Richard
All of our boots that dont have an external heel counter have a TR premolded internal heel counter. Actually, the stability from an internal heel counter vs. an external heel counter is virtually the same. Typically its just a matter of the design and being more visible, thus looking more stable. Stability and fit ARE very important though and the heel counter (internal or external) is certainly a big part of it. Refinforcement in this area keeps the heel cuboid (the back part of the foot around the heel) in place tightly and prevents slipping, increasing control and keeping the boot tight to the foot. This is the reason, for example we use an additional galss fibre reinforcement on the new 4.2 Concept in the heel area, in ADDITION to the internal heel counter. Another important point to note is the shape of the actual last. This can be AS important as the type of reinforcement as the reinforcement is made to fit the last shape. A last with a good heel cuboid shape will fit the foot closer and feel tighter, no matter what kind of reinforcements used. For all our lasts (as you can read more about on my blog), we work closely with athletes in development and testing to ensure we have a good fit and a nice shape. Of course one particular last wont fit every foot (as all feet are different), but paying close attention to this point in development can help a lot an increase the control and stability of any boot. R first pullover footwear design/development blog
Its great to see a boot manufacturer rep taking part in bigsoccer. I wonder if Nike and Adidas will one day do the same??
I doubt it, it's not like they have anything to achieve like Hummel have. And if they are after true market research, I'm afraid that football forums like this only represent a tiny target audience. Plus the demographic of forumites means they are normally more passionate and fanatical about what they wear. Long live the fanaticism!
good point. of course i cant speak for nike or adidas, but certainly they generally do keep things a lot closer to their chest. as well, big companies generally have lots more layers of heirarchy and politics involved that would make an involvement like this by a product manager discussing actual projects almost impossible. There are designers, product managers, marketers, marketing managers, category managers, etc. For myself as product manager, footwear dept. (and also a designer), I only report to the CEO and have lots of freedom lufc_downunder, your point about demographics in this forum is also very important. Of course only certain kinds of people have internet access, and speak english who read these forums. a small percentage indeed. At hummel, we are involved in many different kinds of interactions with players of all kinds. For example, this week here in Denmark there is an international youth tournament with over 15,000 kids from all of the world. We we be present and working like on this forum to touch base in a one-on-one way with these kids. (see you there if you are going!) R