Reviewed by thelonelyrunner


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My off day. Appointment with Dexter from Adidas to do my very own personalised shoe! Woohoo! Sotong will be there too! Yes! Mi Adidas Shoe! The very one and only Customised shoe that can be found in Singapore. Of course I am excited! Always looking forward to have my very own The Lonely Runner personalised gear one day! For now, it is just a shoe. That is just a dream. An expensive reality! For now, I am going to blog on the process of getting your very own mi Adidas Adizero shoe! There’re 10 steps for you to follow to get your very own mi Adidas.

It’s Friday, so I went for my weekly Friday prayer with my dad at the mosque near my area. Than after, I sent my dad home, and I went off to Cathay. There’s only two Adidas outlets that can do mi Adidas. One is at Vivocity and the other is at Cathay which was where I am heading. Happily driving towards Cathay, singing by the tune of my radio. PIE to CTE, exit Orchard Road. Passed by the ERP gantry. *teeet…teeet…teeeet* oohhh… shit!!!

Why there’s no money inside! I opened up my cash card holder and found no cash card! oh-oh! That really spoils my mood! No cash card at all! Saman! There goes my money! Flying! A very expensive journey to town. *sigh* My dad sent the car for servicing and forgot to put back the cash card. It’s ok. Just have to buy a new one. Didn’t blame my dad. Should appreciate what he did. It’s ok. Anyway, it’s worth the journey there!

After buying the cashcard at Plaza Singapura 7-11, went back to cathay Adidas outlet. Was on my way towards the car. Passed by Rameshon! Singapore’s Marathon Record Holder, me idol! Respect and salute this guy! This guy had a timing of 2 hrs 24 mins 22 secs in 1995 London Marathon. Click here to check out his result. I think he did faster than that before. Sub 2 hr 30 mins is no joke man! Salute this guy!

He is ever friendly and enjoy talking about running. He always has alot of knowledge and ideas to share. Very humble guy. He is a coach for Hwa Chong JC if I am not mistaken. He always remember me. Maybe because of my blog. We met a few times last time. The first time I met him was during the registration for the Cross Country Swift Run last two years. He was the organiser of that event. I guessed I blog about the event and he managed to get to know about it. Very honoured to have him going through my crappy blog. Soo paisey! A runner with no standard at all! Heh! I realised who I am!

He told me about his plan on creating a blog to provide running information, which I will be glad to help him in any ways possible and he is organising a package for KL Marathon 2007 this coming March with his schools and invite me to join them. The price is good, will update him more.

Rameshon was there to do his mi adidas customised shoe too. And Fabian William was there too. Fabian is another top marathoner in Singapore. He got second runner up for local category in 2005 Singapore Marathon. Click here to check out his result. I heard from someone that he only trains on a treadmill for the 2005 Singapore Marathon. WOW! Can’t imagine doing long runs on a treadmill. He is upcoming marathoner to look out for. Talented and yet super humble guy! Friendly and funny! Besides Rameshon, Fabian is the Poster Boy for Adidas! If you go to Adidas outlet, you can see a big poster of him. Fabian is there to do his customised shoe too. Both Rameshon and Fabian are sponsored by Adidas.

After Rameshon done with his customised shoe, it’s my turn. Andrina, who used to work with Synergy Multisport and who supported me for my 2005 Tsunami 24 hour Charity Run, work with Adidas right now. She is the expert for this mi Adidas shoe. She will be the one who will assist us to get the best shoe for us.

What you need to do to get your mi Adidas:

Step 1
Set an appointment with Adidas. You have to contact them and asked when is next available appointment. They will provide you the date and time. And do not forget to say what shoe you want to make. There are shoes for running, football and tennis.

Step 2
Wear something comfortable, if possible your running gear. It is better if you wear shorts or track pants with your old pair of running shoe and the sock that you are going to wear with this mi Adidas shoe. IMPORTANT!

Step 3
If it is weekdays and you are driving, and if it is cathay. Do not forget your cashcard. That is IMPORTANT! You do not have to worry if you take public transport.

Step 4
Once you reached there, you will be greeted with the friendly Adidas sales assistant. Tell them that you have an appointment to do mi Adidas running shoe.

Step 5
The Adidas sales assistant will guide you to the mi Adidas counter. Over there, at the side of the counter, there’s a foot measuring device at the side, a laptop on the counter, a foot scan, and a treadmill. Behind the counter there are alot of shoes arranged nicely on the shelf. Each shoe has different number of it. The left pair is on the left part of the shelf, and the right is on the right part of the shelf.

I call it the mi Adidas corner. Very cosy and comfortable corner, far away from public’s eye. Very private and make you feel very comfortable to open up and share your experience or problems that you had with running. Easier for the mi Adidas specialist (which I recommend Andrina) to relate and suggest.

Just because it is a private corner, that does not mean you can wear your favourite old lucky pair of winning socks which you do not wash for years! Please be considerate!

Step 6
First, you need to measure your foot size. Each foot will be measured differently using this high tech with an accuracy of up to 0.1 mm. So you can know the exact size of each foot. Do you know that your left and right is different in size. It’s never perfect at all. No two feet is alike! Unless you are an angel or you go for plastic surgery for your leg! Well, if you want to know the difference, go and get mi Adidas running shoe!

My measurement is as shown in the above no. 3 pic. The length of mi left foot is 273 and right is 273.7. Not that bad huh! The width of of mi left foot is 105.5 and my right is 102.4. Measurements are in millimeter. The data is stored in the mi Adidas customisation software.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPdN2jti9YQ]

Step 7
Pronation and pressure distribution. You need to know how your foot react during runs. There’s no way you can do it on your own. You can put your wet foot on a newspaper and check your pronation. But it is not the same when you are running. Do you know that when you run, your pronation will change.

For example, if you are a flat footer, when you run, without you knowing it, your foot will automatically compensate and make it neutral. Or vice versa. Even the most neutral foot, may over pronate as they run. And this will depend how far you run. You may start the first 10 km running with a neutral pronation feet, but after 10 km, your leg will relax and it will become under pronate. So, the best guide is for you to scan your feet. No machine or shoe is perfect. But this scan is the best to get to know your feet.

What you need to do is to stand about 5 to 10 meters away from the scanner. Run towards it and step on it. Do run at your most natural pace. Do not have to control your pace or skip just to make your foot land exactly on the scanner. It’s ok if you do not step on the scanner. You can do thousands of times just for your foot to land on it exactly. one thousand multiply by 10 meter is equal to 10000 meter or 10 km. No problem! If you have ran a marathon before, 10 km is nothing just to get that perfect scan of your foot. *kidding*

Do not want to scare you, the sensor is simple. As a guide for you to step exactly on the scanner, what you can do is to step at the side of the scanner run or walk back towards the starting point, which is about 5 to 10 meters away. Once reached the starting point, turn back facing the sensor. Remember your starting point or you can put a mark using your slipper or shoe as a guide.

First time scanning, start your run with you left foot forward first. Either one of your foot, for example left will step on the scanner. Than return back to the starting point which you have marked and start your next run with your right leg to get the the other foot scan. Simple? Follow my guide if you are planning to get yourself mi Adidas shoe.

This is what I get from the scan. Over pronating on the left and under pronate on the right. Role more on the outside for the right. And role more on the inside for the left. Recommended by Andrina, Control shoes, which support for the left for over pronate but do not affect the right.

Step 8
Once you have confirmed your sizes and foot type, it’s time for you to decide or the mi Adidas specialist to recommend the shoe size and type. To get the size, you need to choose what type of socks are you going to wear with this shoe. That’s the reason why I said before to put on your favourite running socks when you get there. There are two types for you to choose. Thin or thick. You can also choose whether you are wearing orthothics. Than, through the specialist recommendation, I am choosing the control mid-sole.

My recommended shoe number, 42 for left and 87 for right. The two digit number looks scary! Made me feel like a bigfoot. The right number is two times the number for the left. The number is not the size but a serial number for each shoes for different lengths and widths. There are three shoes with the same length, but different widths. That means, if three individuals having the same size 11, they can have different widths to fit nicely for them. For me, I have broad feet.

Step 9
Put the shoes on with your socks. Run on a treadmill. Start the run slowly on a treadmill and increase the speed according to your comfort level. Make sure that the shoes will not come off. If it does, it is too lose. And check whether the toe hit the front part of the shoe, if it does, it’s tight. And check your toes do not curl when putting on the shoe. If it does, it is too tight. Make sure it is nice and comfy. You must feel like you are on top of the world when wearing the shoe.

Step 10
Once you confirmed the best fitting for your foot, it’s time for you to customise your shoe design. Come on! This is the most fun part! Squeeze your creative juice out! Choose what colours you want for your shoe. Personalised your shoe! I will not tell you what colour I choose. You can put a personalised embroidered signature on your shoe. Cool huh! 10 characters only! Too bad! I am not able to put THE LONELY RUNNER. Too long! The signature will be surprise!

You can only know how coool my shoe looks like once my shoe is ready to collect. How long will it take to get your special shoe? Approximately 4 weeks. There’s a confirmation slip for you to hold on.

Conclusion

To conclude, it takes less than 30 mins for the whole process to finish. It will still depends on how much you want to talk. If you ask more, it will be longer. If you ask less, it can be as fast as 15 mins. Since, this is a good opportunity for you to get to know your foot, do ask more questions. Learn more about fooot and shoe. A very never ending interesting subject. If you want to talk about shoe and foot, it can take days or maybe never ending.

Personally, I find that, this is a best technology so far that we have in the Singapore market. There’s no other brand for now to compete the technology that Adidas have in Singapore market. It’s time for the shoe to fit us and not for us to fit in the shoe.

The price is reasonable, considering that it is a personalised shoe. Adizero cost about $279 and Supernova cost about $329. Compare to those running shoes on the shelf, which cost about $120 to $200, depending on the model. You add about $100 more, you can have it personalise.

To me, price is nothing compare to injuries. I rather pay the cost to prevent myself from getting injured rather that paying hospital bills. I always believe in a good pair of quality running shoes. Regardless of the price. It’s been years that I have been running, I hardly have any injuries. Must Thank God for that!

This is targeted for serious runner, like myself *like real* and elite runners who wants super performance technology running shoe that fit nicely for their foot. It is also for those casual runners who are having hard time to find the right size and fitting for their shoe. Like those who have different pronation, different length and different width. Targeted for those trend setter who would like to personalise their shoe. To be different from anyone else.