As part of the Nike branding launch for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Nike.com created a nice multimedia press site highlighting the various products that were launching at the Olympics. One of the products was the Ballestra, the fencing shoe designed by Nike with input from world class fencers.
Here’s the video. Pay attention to the discussion of the forces involved in fencing compared to basketball and tennis:
One thing you should walk away from this video is that even if you can’t or don’t get the Nike shoes, you need to have shoes that provide shock protection and support, which would rule out things like wrestling shoes and the like.
The featured Olympian for fencing on the Nike web site is Italy’s Margherita Granbassi
