Futurenatural: Our Newest Footwear Innovation Introduced with Harden Vol. 5

In early 2021, we will debut the brand’s latest footwear innovation – Futurenatural. Designed to mirror an athlete’s speed and quick change of direction, Futurenatural will offer a seamless design and new 360-degree fit system to create a natural advantage for athletes.

The one-piece shoe mold works with an athlete’s natural movement to unlock total freedom and dynamic angles – the first iteration of the technology applied to footwear will be featured on James Harden’s fifth signature basketball sneaker, Harden Vol. 5.

Futurenatural features the best of adidas’ midsole technologies with BOOST for ultimate comfort, and LIGHTSTRIKE which provides super-light cushioning while still retaining superb responsiveness. This all-new process and construction debuting on Harden Vol. 5 was designed to allow athletes to move freely in any direction like never before.

“Futurenatural is a new process for the creation of shoes, and is a perfect technology for Harden Vol. 5 with James’ dynamic style of play and moves on the court being unlike any other player,” said Rashad Williams, Senior Director of Footwear at adidas Basketball. “James offers feedback from a design and feel standpoint, which is extremely important during our creative process and it ultimately led us to develop the Futurenatural technology to match his game.”

How Futurenatural came to life:

• FIT: We looked at the foot scans of thousands of basketball athletes worldwide and conducted extensive research to create a new last, or shoe mold, that delivers an anatomically correct representation of an athlete’s foot. This creates a revolutionary fit that closely represents the shape of the actual human foot and acts as an extension of the body.

• LOCKDOWN: For a superior lockdown, we produced a seamless design. Our design team created an evolved process to forge the textured upper of the shoe using extreme pressure from all directions (360-degrees) and 135-degree heat. The outsole is then assembled to the forged upper of the shoe. The seamless upper and outsole gives athletes full ground contact for a natural feel like they’ve never experienced before.

• FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT: Futurenatural also features an athlete data-informed traction pattern that delivers better grip for quicker cuts and dynamic movement.

Due to his dynamic style of play, quickness on the court, and unmatched ability to change direction with the ball, Futurenatural will debut in James Harden’s next signature shoe – Harden Vol. 5, which will go on-sale in early 2021 additional details to come closer to its launch.