Conti aiding the fleet of foot

High levels of grip and traction are not just important in vehicle tyres, and to emphasise this Continental has shed some light onto an oft-overlooked part of its business. In addition to manufacturing commercial, consumer and off-road tyres, the German manufacturer has supplied rubber compounds to adidas for the past few years. These compounds are used to produce non-slip soles for more than 30 models of men and women’s running and trekking shoes. The tyre maker says the Continental sole has extremely effective non-slip qualities.

“We are delighted that the adidas running shoes with our rubber compound technology developed in Hanover are helping many professional athletes to achieve new personal best times and break course records,” comments David O’Donnell, head of R&D for passenger car and light truck tyres at Continental. “This shows the potential long-term benefits of looking beyond your immediate industry for new technology and solutions. During the development of our premium products, which stand out primarily due to exceptionally good grip in the wet, we even looked at gripping mechanisms from the animal kingdom – cats and polar bears in particular – and also focused on the production of rubber from dandelion plants.”

Today, numerous professional marathon runners are exploiting this technological edge to set ever faster times – as is impressively demonstrated by the new course records set in Hanover and Tokyo in 2013 and in London in 2012, as well as the new men’s world record set in Berlin in 2011.

At the 2013 Hanover Marathon, held on 5 May and supported by Continental as a sponsor, South African runner Lusapho April set a new course record of 2:08:32, running in the new adizero adios boost shoes. This record was achieved despite temperatures reaching above 20°C at times – a blistering temperature for Northern Germany in early May. The Ukrainian Olena Burkovska matched his efforts with the same model of running shoes, setting a new women’s course record of 2:27:07. At the 2013 Tokyo Marathon, Kenyan athlete Dennis Kimetto also broke the course record with a time of 2:06:50 – again running in adizero adios boost shoes. The significantly improved performance of his adizero adios 2 running shoes also helped Kenya’s Wilson Kipsang win the London Marathon in 2012, when he fell just four seconds short of setting a new world record. It also helped Kenya’s Mary Keitany, who was likewise victorious in London with a fabulous time of 2:18:37 hours. Back in 2011, the 26-year-old Kenyan Patrick Makau set a new world record of 2:03:38 hours at the Berlin Marathon in adizero adios 2 running shoes.