I don't asics trainers know the situation at ASICS, so I can't speculate on your situation" I have been at ASICS for 30 years this year& the head biomechnist, Nishiwaki-san also head of research, not me has been there as long as I can remember. In my time as someone very involved 12years there has not been one single loss of a key design or research staff member. Remarkable I am sure will now scoff that maybe this is ASiCS "problem". I know the guys at Nike and adidas pretty well. Mario LaFortune, Gordon Valient and Jeff Piscotti have all been at Nike longer than I have been at ASICS all three are the key biomechnists can speak for design team sorry, do not know. Adi the same.

Let me give you an example of this and the risks we take. In 2005 I identified a group of athletes who had an extraordinary divergence of injury rate and type in the asics running shoes sports community. in particular this group was suffering ruptures of their ACL's at a rate 8 times more often than their peer group. This group? Women. I wanted to try to understand why this was happening, and what we might be able to do to help, given that, at the time, all women's shoes were downsized asics gel kayano versions of mens shoes, making zero recognition of the diffrences in anatomy, physiology biomechanics, etc. So we embarked on a fascinating journey.

We set aside a budget of several million dollars, and went to the Univerity of Melbourne to meet with Professor Kim Bennell (a woman), the head of the Centre for Health, Exercise and Sports Medicine. There, we mapped out a research project that was to take 4 years, and headed up by the extraordinary mind of Dr. Adam Bryant, a biomechanist at CHESM. I will not bore you with the details, but the research yielded 3 papers, all published, and if you are interested, I will send them to asics gt 2000 you.

The study looked at the effect of circulating oestragen on tendon complance and neuromotor control, with the premise that high concentrations of oestragen if female athletes would increase tendon compliance (make them stretchier) and also impair motorskilss a double whammy for a female athlete. What we were able to discover was that high concentrations of oestragen increased tendon compliance at about day 14 of the menstrual cycle, and low levels reduced motor skills.

So women (who are not on the pill" have a window of opportunity for injury at about day1 and again at day 14. Bigo if we know this we can do something to protect this. The research has now won several international awards, and had the rare distinction of attracting editorail comment from the Journal of Applied Physiology, calling it one of the most important studies i nto gender reseach i a decade ASICS research mate that has nothing to really do with footwear. Dowe deserve credit? Your call. What I can tell you is that armed with what we now knew, we did introduce new design elements into the Kayano 16 for women, which, based on the science, we believed would help the female runner.

And according to RW it has a 12mm lift [Heel (33mm), Forefoot (21mm)]. This appears to be a classic Model-T running shoe with some weight removed. Although its still much asics netball trainers heavier than my Kinvaras and Trail Gloves (obviously). I suppose there isn't an Asics shoe to fit the bill. I'll just buy the Kinvara 2's or maybe the Hattori's. Thanks for trying Pete. =Ø ÞJust having a little fun. If there are people who do benefit from a shoe like that, by all means keep it on the market, even if it's just a small number. It's just that you made the statement that Asics has abandoned the concept of motion control shoes, but all it looks like to me is that the name has been changed to "maximum support."