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“From pitch to pitch, and even within a single pitch, the ground conditions vary,” says Andrew Caine, Nike’s creative director for soccer footware. cheap james shoes“Pro players vary their boots to adjust, so we had a vision of shoe that would adapt.” Three years later, the Vapor II has studs that extend up to 3mm in soft ground, but act like a normal stud on firm ground.cheap nfl jerseys

“In design, the simpler the mechanism, the better something works,” says Caine. For the Superfly II, there are three basic components that allow the pegs to adapt. The structural support for the shoe comes from a carbon-fiber “plate” in the sole. Meanwhile, the bright orange pegs on the front of the shoe have a moving column inside. (Which you can see in the picture below–it’s the black core.)
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When a player steps into soft ground, the carbon sole flexes, pushing those columns down. The clear coating on the outside of the sole stretches in response, thus allowing the pegs to literally extend–while also keeping the entire mechanism sealed off from water and mud.
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After impact, the coating then pulls the pegs back into place, and keeps them from driving back up into the foot.

The colors, meanwhile, are meant to be a performance enhancer for the entire team. jordan fushions shoesThe orange swoosh is meant to be a bold contrast with the green soccer pitch, thus making teammates easier to spot in a player’s peripheral vision while he’s on the run.puma fans And that’s the same reason the outside is purple and the inside is dark: “The contrast creates a visual flicker that engages the peripheral vision,” says Caine.

* Revenue $4.7 billion; up 7 percent versus prior year
* Diluted EPS of $1.01, up 102 percent from prior year; excluding prior year non-cash impairment charge diluted EPS up 2 percentcheap adidas shoes
* Worldwide futures orders up 9 percent; up 6 percent excluding currency changescheap goggles
* Inventories down 13 percent versus prior year
NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) today reported financial results for its fiscal 2010 third quarter ended February 28, 2010. Third quarter revenues increased 7 percent, from $4.4 billion last year to $4.7 billion in the current year. Excluding changes in currency exchange rates, net revenue was up 2 percent compared to the same quarter last year.nike fans
Third quarter net income was $496 million or $1.01 per diluted share, compared to $244 million or $0.50 per diluted share in the same period last year. Results from last year included a $241 million, after-tax non-cash charge related to the impairment of goodwill, intangible and other assets of the Company’s Umbro subsidiary. Excluding this charge, net income and diluted earnings per share both would have increased 2 percent.nike men shoes

“We had a great quarter,” said Mark Parker, NIKE, Inc. President and Chief Executive Officer. “Today’s results reinforce our belief that when we connect with consumers in deep and meaningful ways from product concepts to how they experience our brands, we win in the marketplace and drive sustainable, profitable growth.”
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Futures Orders

The Company reported worldwide futures orders for NIKE Brand athletic footwear and apparel, scheduled for delivery from March through July 2010, totaling $7.1 billion, 9 percent higher than orders reported for the same period last year. Excluding currency changes, orders would have increased 6 percent.*
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North America
During the third quarter, revenue for North America increased 1 percent to $1.7 billion. Footwear revenues of $1.2 billion were down 1 percent compared to last year, apparel revenues grew 6 percent to $409 million and equipment revenues increased 8 percent to $85 million. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) for North America improved 4 percent to $402 million.pumas shoes

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Third quarter revenue for Western Europe increased 4 percent to $929 million. Compared to the same period last year, footwear revenue increased 8 percent to $577 million, apparel revenue declined 1 percent to $300 million and equipment revenue decreased 4 percent to $52 million. Third quarter EBIT was flat to last year at $199 million.

Central and Eastern Europe
In the third quarter, revenue for Central and Eastern Europe declined 8 percent to $272 million. Footwear revenue decreased 2 percent to $159 million, apparel revenue was down 17 percent to $94 million and equipment revenue dropped 15 percent to $19 million. Compared to the same period last year, EBIT was down 47 percent to $50 million.

Greater China
Revenue for Greater China during the third quarter was up 10 percent to $458 million. Footwear revenue grew 12 percent to $279 million, apparel revenue increased 8 percent to $154 million, and equipment revenue was up 13 percent to $26 million. Third quarter EBIT improved 21 percent to $176 million.

Japan
Japan’s third quarter revenue was down 7 percent to $213 million. Compared to the prior year, footwear revenue declined 6 percent to $103 million, apparel revenue dropped 9 percent to $87 million and equipment revenue decreased 9 percent to $23 million. EBIT declined 16 percent in the third quarter to $40 million.

Emerging Markets
In the Emerging Markets revenue was up 43 percent to $509 million for the third quarter. Footwear revenue increased 53 percent to $352 million, apparel revenue rose 32 percent to $119 million and equipment revenue increased 10 percent to $38 million. EBIT for the Emerging Markets in the third quarter improved 72 percent to $122 million.

Other Businesses
Revenue in the third quarter for Other Businesses, which includes Cole Haan, Converse Inc., Hurley International LLC, NIKE Golf, and Umbro Ltd. increased 13 percent to $656 million. Third quarter EBIT was $105 million versus a loss of $343 million last year. Last year’s results included a $401 million pre-tax non-cash impairment charge to reduce the carrying value of Umbro’s goodwill, intangible and other assets. Excluding this charge, EBIT increased 80 percent compared to the same period last year.

Income Statement Review

In the third quarter of fiscal 2010 gross margins were 46.9 percent compared to 43.9 percent for the same period last year. chinese kongfuGross margins for the quarter were higher than the prior year primarily due to improved in-line product margins, less discounted close-out sales and favorable changes in product mix.

Third quarter selling and administrative expenses grew 16 percent to $1.6 billion. Selling and administrative expenses for the quarter were higher than the same period last year mainly due to the timing of demand creation spending, investments in Company owned retail and higher costs for performance-based compensation.

The effective tax rate for the third quarter was 25.0 percent compared to a negative 3.6 percent for the same period last year. ugg bootsExcluding the tax effect of the charge for the impairment of Umbro assets, the effective tax rate for the third quarter of fiscal 2009 would have been 23.9 percent.

Balance Sheet Review

At the end of the third quarter, global inventories stood at $2.2 billion, down 13 percent from February 28, 2009. Cash and short-term investments at February 28, 2010 were $4.0 billion, $1.4 billion or 55 percent higher than last year.

Share Repurchase

During the third quarter, the Company repurchased a total of 5,134,092 shares for approximately $329 million. These purchases concluded the Company’s previous four-year,cheap shoes $3 billion share repurchase program, approved by the Board of Directors in June 2006. During this program, the Company purchased a total of 53.9 million shares.

Having completed the previous program, the Company began repurchases under the four-year, $5 billion program approved in September 2008. Of the total shares repurchased during the third quarter 3.7 million shares for approximately $239 million were purchased under this program.

Conference Call

Nike management will host a conference call beginning at approximately 2:00 p.m. PT on March 17, 2010, to review third quarter results. The conference call will be broadcast live over the Internet and can be accessed at www.nikebiz.com/investors. For those unable to listen to the live broadcast, an archived version will be available at the same location through midnight, March 24, 2010.

About NIKE, Inc.

NIKE, Inc. based near Beaverton, Oregon, is the world’s leading designer, marketer and distributor of authentic athletic footwear, apparel, equipment and accessories for a wide variety of sports and fitness activities. Wholly-owned Nike subsidiaries include Cole Haan, which designs, markets and distributes luxury shoes, handbags, accessories and coats; Converse Inc., which designs, markets and distributes athletic footwear, apparel and accessories; Hurley International LLC, which designs, markets and distributes action sports and youth lifestyle footwear, apparel and accessories; and Umbro Ltd., a leading United Kingdom-based global football (soccer) brand. nike air maxFor more information, Nike’s earnings releases and other financial information are available on the Internet at www.nikebiz.com/investors

Then we come Tiger Woods, another Nike superstar who was plunged into scandal beginning in November of 2009, when a series of sordid details regarding the golfer’s extra-marital affairs we widely publicized. Most Tiger Woods endorsement clients could not drop him fast enough — except for Nike. Nike has built their entire golf equipment and apparel business around Woods and while there were rumors that some wives were telling their husbands to avoid Nike golf apparel because of the Woods scandal, Nike golf sales seem to be unaffected. Conventional wisdom suggested that the Nike golf brand was dead. However, according to data gathered by SporsScanInfo, sales of Nike brand golf products in the 13 weeks prior to revelation of the Wood’s scandal matched sales in the 13 weeks following the outing of the scandal. It seems that the only way out of a Nike endorsement deal is poor performance on the field.brand watches

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The Nike brand continues to build market share around the world. Expansion was a key move that produced a 43% jump in emerging markets revenue during Nike’s most recent quarter. Sales in North America, Western Europe, the emerging markets and Greater China, rose by 1%, 4%, 43% and 10%, respectively in the fiscal third quarter. Conversely, sales in Japan and Central and Eastern Europe fell 7% and 8%, respectively. The Q3 report also revealed that the sales increases allowed Nike to more than double analyst estimates.adidas shoes

The next few months also look strong for Nike as orders for goods that will be delivered between March and July increased by 6 percent. Summer outlook is also bolstered by the largest sporting event in the world: soccer’s World Cup where nine of the thirty-two national teams will be competing in Nike gear. The list of World Cup clients includes the United States national team as well as, tournament favorite, Brazil and the world’s best soccer player, Christiano Ronaldo. World Cup footballers will be wearing Nike’s new fabric made from recycled plastic. Each shirt will use up to eight recycled plastic bottles taken from Japanese and Taiwanese landfill sites.
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Now that Tiger Woods has announced his intent to make his professional golf return at the prestigious Master’s tournament, it is likely that the central figure of one of the most compelling sports stories of the year, competing in the sport’s largest event will be wearing Nike gear. Of course, Tiger could register a terrible performance at the Masters, in which case Nike Inc. will likely have to content itself with merely sponsoring the World Cup champion.

PARIS, March 15 (Reuters) – Sports equipment maker Nike (NKE.N) and French soccer club Paris Saint-Germain faced trial in Paris on Monday on charges of hiding payments to attract top players,cheap shoes/t-shirts including Nicolas Anelka and Gabriel Heinze.

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Two former presidents of Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), one of France’s richest clubs with famous fans such as President Nicolas Sarkozy, and several agents are also on trial over the alleged attempt to avoid French employment taxes.

Nike France and PSG have denied any wrongdoing.cheap jordans

Prosecutors say agents, sponsors and club officials partly hid payments for some 20 transfers from 1998 to 2005, including those of Heinze, who joined PSG from Spanish club Valladolid in 2001, nike shox shoesand Anelka, who came from Real Madrid in 2000.

Nike is accused of helping to hide payments through sponsorship contracts with players such as Brazil’s Ronaldinho.brand t-shirts
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The players themselves are not among the accused. If found guilty, the accused could be asked to pay back millions of euros that were allegedly withheld from tax and social security authorities, as the actual payments were larger than the ones declared.
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A lawyer for the group said there was nothing unusual in the deals.

“Do you think the fact that Ronaldinho wears Nike boots is no advantage for Nike? Isn’t it normal to pay for that?” lawyer Olivier Metzner said. “That happens in every country of the world. We did it in Paris, like everywhere else and we only have problems in Paris.”

French magistrates stumbled over the suspect payments some years ago after investigating salary of one player. They are not accusing any of the defendants of personal enrichment. (Reporting by Thierry Leveque;bwith shoes writing by Sophie Hardach; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

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A wealthy New York socialite accused of killing her eight-year-old son in a botched murder-suicide attempt at one of Manhattan’s most luxurious hotels appeared in court today.googi jeans

Gigi Jordan’s only child was found face up on a bed near his mother in a £1,500-a-night suite at the five-star Peninsula hotel on Fifth Avenue last month, police said.nba jerseys

She was ‘babbling incoherently’ after downing a cocktail of pills, according to U.S. reports, but survived.

The multi-millionaire claimed to have donated most of her fortune to charities helping Haiti earthquake victims in the hours before her suicide attempt.light snow

The boy, named as Michael Jude, was discovered in his pyjamas and ‘foaming at the mouth’ from an apparent drug overdose, police said. He had been dead for a day.

His mother is thought to have fed him prescription drugs and spent the night with his body before trying to kill herself.
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Police who broke into her suite on the hotel’s 16th floor allegedly found hundreds of pills and a bizarre two-page suicide note in which Jordan, 49,ca jeans suggested her son was a rape victim and was ‘in constant pain’.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1258160/Multi-millionaire-Gigi-Jordan-accused-murdering-autistic-son.html#ixzz0izUIiHB8

She wrote: ‘I can tell you the only true happy moment in my life was when Jude was born. He was all the love I ever had in my life.kappa shoes

‘I hope Jude is in a better place.’

Belgian-born Jordan was said to be upset after the collapse of her marriage to second husband Emil Tzekov, a pharmaceuticals executive.

When she checked into the exclusive hotel, which boasts a rooftop pool popular with celebrities such as Rod Stewart, hotel insiders said she paid in cash, ordered room service and then barricaded herself in the room for two days with furniture propped behind the door.

The boy’s aunt in Belgium alerted police in New York after Jordan sent a number of disturbing emails in which she threatened to kill herself and her son.

Officers first went to her apartment in the city’s famous Trump Tower complex overlooking Central Park before tracking her to the Peninsula.

She was rushed to Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital in a critical condition, cheap adidas shoesand was later arrested.

Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne said Jordan had already ‘made statements implicating herself in her son’s death’.

Jordan’s rambling note reportedly hinted that her son, who is thought to have had autism, had been the victim of a paedophile ring, cheap adidasand directed police to examine her computer for further details.

She also allegedly said she had sent a $12million donation (£7.7million) to Doctors Without Borders and $8million (£5.1million) to the Red Cross for Haiti relief before the apparent murder-suicide attempt.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1258160/Multi-millionaire-Gigi-Jordan-accused-murdering-autistic-son.html#ixzz0izU2OXPQ

The Winter Olympics get underway next week in Italy and when those skiers, china shoeslugers and bobsledders come hurdling down the mountain, some will be wearing company logos. Some top Olympic athletes can make a lot of money but most have to rely on anything they can make from commercial endorsements. NPR’s Chris Arnold reports.

CHRIS ARNOLD reporting:cheap brand t-shirts

In the run-up to the Olympics you might catch one of these commercials Nike is about to start running featuring the top skier on the U.S. men’s team, Bode Miller.
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Mr. BODE MILLER (Skier, U.S. Olympic Men’s Team; World Cup Champion): [in an advertising clip] …and when the challenge gets bigger, I just want to ramp it up more and see what’s–I mean, my only worry is that, at some point, I’m just gonna die.

ARNOLD: At this point in the ad you see video of one of Miller’s spectacular wipe-outs. He loses control of his skis and is going so fast he flips completely upside down, flies for 50 feet through the air and lands on his head and shoulder.
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(Soundbite of background advertisement)

Mr. MILLER: …until then I usually charge pretty hard. It doesn’t seem to get any less fun.

ARNOLD: Miller is the reigning World Cup ski champion and could win a bunch of medals at Turin. A few Americans heading over to the Winter Olympics, Miller and the figure skater Michelle Kwan,cheap gucci have managed to make millions off their sports careers. But most Olympic hopefuls get very little money by comparison, even when they get lucky enough to land a sponsorship deal.
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Mr. TONY BENSHOFF (Luger, U.S. Olympic Men’s Team): I’m not getting rich (laughs).

ARNOLD: That’s Tony Benshoff, the no. 3 ranked Men’s Single luge slider in the world. He’s the top guy on the U.S. team. He’s got several corporate sponsorships and he stands a good chance of medaling at Turin. So, how much do you think Benshoff made last year?

Mr. BENSHOFF: I made, oh, maybe $35,000.

ARNOLD: And about $25,000 of that came from a job he has at the Home Depot where he works six months of the year and gets six months off to train and compete. And Benshoff says he’s happy to be making that much. He’s 30 years old and he’s been scraping by on a lot less ever since he fell in love with the sport of luge.

Mr. BENSHOFF: I saw it on the ‘88 Olympics and I remember specifically saying to my dad, like, how in the heck do these guys stop? You know, this (unintelligible) just the craziest sport. It was just the act of sliding down a hill at 80 mph and the sled just, I just, it was really exciting to me.

ARNOLD: Soon after the U.S. luge team was recruiting in Minneapolis near Benshoff’s home and he signed up, started sliding and was hooked. ceciliaSince hardly anybody in this country follows these more obscure Olympic sports, companies say they just can’t justify spending much money on athletes like Benshoff. Paul Swanguard heads up the University of Oregon’s Warsaw Sports Marketing Center.

Mr. PAUL SWANGARD (Director, The James H. Warsaw Sports Marketing Center, Lundquist College of Business, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon): It’s hard for them to be able to measure the impact of those dollars being spent against those athletes. You know, in basketball if they’re spending money on Lebron James and his new shoe results in $100 million of new business, it’s a pretty easy, you know, math equation to figure out how that’s affecting their bottom line.

ARNOLD: Swangard says one thing marketers have been doing more recently with Olympic athletes is giving them less money up front, but some bigger incentives if they actually win a medal. Benshoff says those are the kinds of sponsorship deals he’s gotten this year. He says, still, even winning a gold would get him a total somewhere in the $100,000 range, not exactly Lebron James money, but after years with thousands of dollars on credit cards,cheap bags Benshoff says he’d be happy with that. Chris Arnold, NPR News.

When people talked about innovation in the ’90s, they invariably meant technology. foot lockerWhen people speak about innovation today, it’s more than likely they mean design. So writes Bruce Nussbaum in the current issue of BusinessWeek, introducing the magazine’s 2005 annual design awards. The competition is run by the Industrial Designers Society of America. The awards are called Industrial Design Excellence Awards, IDEAs.handbagscheap kappa
And, Bruce Nussbaum, of the 148 awards–gold, silver and bronze–I wonder if you could tell us some trends about which companies china cheap air jordans
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Mr. BRUCE NUSSBAUM (BusinessWeek Magazine): Well, anyone who has a cell phone these days knows that Korea has been doing very well in design lately. Samsung and LG and some others have been doing very well. Clearly, if you have an iPod, you know that Apple does wonderful design, although you may not know exactly why it does that great design. It goes way more–way beyond just doing cool things. Nike does really creative design way beyond running shoes. And, of course, we’re getting some very wonderful design out of Europe, which has always been a–sort of a design capital.

SIEGEL: Now I want you to tell us about one gold prize winner, a very unusual-looking vehicle. brand tIt’s the Shift Bike.
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Mr. NUSSBAUM: Well, the Shift Bike is a fascinating concept, and I hope it gets into production pretty soon. This Shift Bike changes the paradigm of a training bike. Instead of having those two training wheels it’s really a tricycle with one big wheel in the front and two in the back that have a–sort of a pyramid shape to them. And when, you know, you’re sitting on it as a little kid and you’re moving slowly you are very well-balanced. But as you go faster and you have a little more confidence, those two rear wheels begin to close together so they become, in effect, one wheel. And so you’re basically teaching yourself how to ride a bike. It’s a fascinating concept. Yeah, and actually when you see the picture it’s really beautiful as well.

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SIEGEL: Now another gold award winner of a completely different sort of product is the Purist Hatbox Toilet,cheap air jordans which, I might say, goes for even under $3,000.

Mr. NUSSBAUM: Three thousand dollars for a toilet. It’s hard to describe a toilet as beautiful but this is beautiful. It’s like a piece of sculpture. It’s very minimalist. Then again, they’ve broken the paradigm of what a toilet is by redesigning it and they’ve taken away the tank. They have a new kind of pump that’s underneath that allows you to operate the toilet, and then it has a lid and a seat and when the lid comes down it closes and it, in fact, looks like, you know, your Aunt Tilda’s hatbox. And for all the guys out there who are always slamming the seat down, including me, they have a hinge in which it slows everything down.cheap adidas shoes So when you close it they come down very, very, almost elegantly and quietly.

SIEGEL: I see.

Mr. NUSSBAUM: I know this sounds ridiculous for a toilet…

SIEGEL: It’s the soft-landing toilet lid, you’re saying?

Mr. NUSSBAUM: It just–it blows you away.

SIEGEL: Do you see in the items that were entered a look of the early 21st century emerging, something that typifies design in our times right now?

Mr. NUSSBAUM: What actually I see in these products is that there is a look–they sort of have a modernistic look to them, but what I really see here in terms of design is that we are moving beyond the shape and the color of design to design strategies and design research where people actually go out and observe how normal people behave. Whether they’re taking showers with that really cool, new Moen shower head thing, they’re doing research in how people actually operate things now and how they move through life and what they want. women shoesAnd we’re seeing a lot of design from the bottom up and a lot of innovation from the bottom up and a different use of design from simply making things pretty to making them more usable and more interesting and like that.jordan shoes That’s really what I’m seeing here in this contest.

SIEGEL: Bruce Nussbaum, thanks a lot for talking with us about this.wholesale adidas shoes

Mr. NUSSBAUM: Thank you very much. It’s wonderful.

The World Cup begins tomorrow in Germany. In soccer, what the rest of the world knows, as football, team rivalries are intense. Equally intense is the soccer competition between the world’s two biggest producers of sports apparel, Nike and Adidas.

As NPR’s Wendy Kaufman reports, Nike, a relative newcomer to soccer, is gunning for the Germany company whose name is practically synonymous with the game.

WENDY KAUFMAN reporting:

For Nike, soccer has become the Holy Grail. Nike is bigger than Adidas, but as Nike sees it, to truly be the number one sports brand in the world, you have to be number one in the world’s most popular sport.

(Soundbite of kids playing soccer)

At Adidas’ North American headquarters near downtown Portland, serious play is part of the job. But mention Nike’s ambitions here, and you’ll get an earful from employees like Antonia Zaya(ph).

Adidas, he says, is number one in soccer. Always has been – always will be.

Mr. ANTONIA ZAYA (Adidas Employer): Soccer is the soul of Adidas. It’s what the company was built on. And there’s a little guy behind all of this. There was a shoemaker, and he wasn’t somebody that was just putting shoes on people’s feet. He was a person that was making shoes for athletes, and that’s the spirit that lives with all of us. It’s the passion of the game.

KAUFMAN: The passion for soccer permeates everything inside the edgy high-tech buildings here. A nine-foot replica of Adidas’ new World Cup Ball dominates the lobby, along with a huge electronic clock, counting down the seconds till the start of the games.

More than two years ago, 200 Adidas employees were selected and given a task – create new technology superior products for the World Cup.

Mr. ZAYA: I was one of those people, actually. I built some of those products.

KAUFMAN: Antonia Zaya says the coolest thing was working on TUNIT, a new concept in soccer shoes, known in much of the rest of the world as football boots. Each pair comes with different choices for soles and studs, so it can be instantly customized.

Mr. ZAYA: The chassis is simply inserted into the upper of the product. It slides in, and then it’s a simply screw-in system that you screw into the upper. TUNIT is the iPod of the industry.

KAUFMAN: But while Adidas invokes the iPod, much of the company’s marketing strategy is very traditional. The company boasts that it has locked up all the official sponsorships. It’s the only sports apparel company that can advertise inside or near the stadiums, and it’s the only one that can run ads on most TV broadcasts.

With billions of fans expected to watch the games in person or on television, Adidas has a powerful marketing platform. But make no mistake: Nike has plans of its own.

On a recent afternoon at Nike’s sprawling, 176-acre campus in suburban Portland, a top high school athlete is blasting balls into the net as part of a field test for a new Nike shoe.

(Soundbite of soccer)

The company has come a long way in soccer since 1994, when it first decided to get serious about the sport. The company’s Dean Stoyer says, in the past 12 years Nike’s soccer business has grown from $40 million to nearly $1.5 billion.

Mr. DEAN STOYER (Nike Spokesman): We have been striving to be the number one soccer brand in the world since we made that commitment in ‘94.

KAUFMAN: And Nike, he says, doesn’t enter a fight unless it intends to win.

Paul Swangard, at the University of Oregon’s Sports Marketing Program says, for Adidas, the challenge is to be hip and relevant while still paying homage to the past. Nike, he says, can focus solely on the future.

Mr. PAUL SWANGARD (Managing Director, University of Oregon Warsaw Sports Marketing Center): Nike has gone very hard at the next generation, this idea of soccer-crazed kids that are growing up in a new environment with a new media world, with new tastes in favorite teams and favorite athletes.

KAUFMAN: One of Nike’s favorites is the superstar of the Brazilian National Team, Ronaldinho. According to Nike’s Dean Stoyer, Ronaldinho embodies the company’s marketing theme, Joga Benito. It means play beautifully in Portuguese.

Mr. STOYER: Ronaldinho is, by far, the most popular player. And most would say the most talented player in the world today. And he’s very, very young. And he’s incredible to watch.

KAUFMAN: In a Nike produced Internet-only ad that the company says has been downloaded 30 million times, Ronaldinho is seen doing spectacular shots. On his feet, Nike cleats with a huge golden swoosh. With exposure like this, Nike says, you don’t need official World Cup sponsorships.

What happens most, of course, is what happens on the field, whose gear gets seen the most. Nike is banking on the Brazilians to win, while the Germany company, Adidas, is pulling for its home team.

Wendy Kaufman, NPR News.

All right. And there’s more than music on your iPod if you have something called the Nike+iPod sport kit. This thing goes in your shoe and connects to your iPod. And there there’s a little voice that comes over your music, and it tells you how far you’ve run and calories and such.

Sounds neat, but report Jeff Rice says a team of graduate students at the University of Washington has found out the sport kit raises privacy concerns.

JEFF RICE: The Nike+iPod sport kit features a small, built-in pedometer that sends radio signals to an iPod Nano. As you run, a motivational voice gives you updates on things like your pace, distance and calories burned.

Unidentified Woman: Eleven minutes, 16 seconds completed. Distance – .22 miles. Current pace – 852 per mile.

RICE: One of the people who bought the shoe iPod combo was Scott Saponas, a graduate student in computer science at the University of Washington.

Mr. SCOTT SAPONAS (Graduate Student, University of WA): And I started using it to track my runs. It even helped me motivate to run more.

RICE: It’s just the kind of gadget that appeals to Scott, who’s a student of what is known as ubiquitous computing.

Mr. SAPONAS: The idea is looking at interfaces for computers for the next generation of computing applications. It occurred to me that it’s possible that applications like this could potentially be leaking information I don’t want it to leak.

RICE: So he fears that devices like the speedometer, which sold almost a half a million units in its first few months, are a privacy concern. Consider Scott’s shoes. Right now, the little, seemingly innocuous shoe pedometer is sending out all kinds of information – not just that he’s running at a seven-minute pace or how many calories he’s burning.

Mr. SAPONAS: I’ve burned 49 calories in the course of this interview, according to my Nike+iPod Sport Kit.

RICE: As part of a class project, Scott and two other graduate students have shown that the shoes sends out a potential tracking signal.

Mr. SAPONAS: So what happens is with the sensor in my shoe, when I start walking around, it starts broadcasting a unique identifier. So we can…

RICE: Saponas and the other members of the study team, Carl Hartung and Jonathan Lester, are looking at a Google Earth image on a large screen.

Mr. SAPONAS: No, we need to plug it in to the speakers.

RICE: Every time Saponas runs around the room or simply taps his foot, his location shows up on the map. A code sent by the pedometer in the shoe travels anywhere from 10 to 60 feet. A hacker with a basic knowledge of soldering could place a small receiver at strategic locations, let’s say next to a running path, or…

Mr. SAPONAS: One at the dorm, one at the gym, one at the cafeteria – a place where the person is likely to be.

RICE: The signal can then be plugged into a computer and tracked.

(Soundbite of music being cut off)

RICE: Some critics say those scenarios are far-fetched. Apple refused to comment for this story, while Nike issued this written statement.

Unidentified Man: (Reading) Nike takes consumer privacy very seriously. The Nike+iPod Sport Kit features the same level of security as millions of other wireless consumer electronics devices such as mobile phones, Bluetooth devices and cordless phones. Should the consumer have any concerns, the sensor can easily be turned off or removed.

RICE: But privacy advocates say those millions of consumer electronic devices that Nike mentions may just be the big issue in all of this. University of Washington Professor Yoshi Kohno, who co-authored a paper with the students about the potential security problems, says this is about a broader issue.

Professor YOSHI KOHNO (Computer Science, University of Washington): So I think one of the purposes of our study was just to understand the trends in modern technology. And what we found was that modern technology is still coming out that don’t fully address the broad spectrum of privacy issues.

RICE: Lee Tien, a lawyer with the nonprofit advocacy group The Electronic Frontier Foundation, calls this kind of thing a form of privacy pollution. A single product is one thing, but millions of everyday devices are another.

Mr. LEE TIEN (Lawyer, The Electronic Frontier Foundation): The real question that we have to face is do we want this kind of technology and the attitude that comes with it to be the way things are over the next 10, 15, 20 years? Because if everyone thinks that way, then we’re probably guaranteed that the social environment will be very dense with tracking devices that have no security and will also be dense with readers. Let’s look at the big picture. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

RICE: For NPR News, I’m Jeff Rice in Seattle.

Nike Corporation unveiled its latest shoe yesterday.

Now, you might be saying Nike does it all the time. What’s new? But this shoe is a little different. Instead of targeting the masses, this new shoe, the Air Native N7, is designed specifically for Native Americans.

Here to tell us more about is Sam McCracken, the manager of Nike’s Native American Business program.

Mr. McCracken, welcome.

Mr. SAM McCRACKEN (Native American Business Program Manager, Nike): Thank you. Glad to be here.

MARTIN: Now, who came up with this idea? Why focus on Native Americans?

Mr. McCRACKEN: In 2000, I had an opportunity to write a business plan and really give the communities across the U.S., native communities, access to the Nike brand as a point of inspiration to promote physical activity.

MARTIN: Are you a Native American?

Mr. McCRACKEN: I am. I’m an enrolled member of the Fort Peck Tribes in northeastern Montana. And if you like, I will introduce myself in my native language.

MARTIN: I would love it.

Mr. McCRACKEN: (Nakona language spoken)

What I basically did, loosely translated, is I did my welcome, and I talked about my clan. I’m part of the Red Bottom Clan on my mother’s side, and I’m named after my great-grandfather, Thomas Duck(ph), who was a provider for the Assiniboine people.

MARTIN: Oh. Well, that’s great. That’s great. So the question – I’m sure you know that – and I’ve been reading the news stories that have already been written about the shoe and the response from the tribal members who have been quoted seems to be uniformly positive. But like I’m sure you kind of understand why this is kind of an eyebrow raiser – marketing a shoe to a specific ethnicity. What is it about Native American people’s feet that would suggest that they need a specifically designed shoe, or is this something about the ergonomics of the shoe or is it simply the design that’s heritage oriented?

Mr. McCRACKEN: Well, I think we have both involved. In 2003, to get a little bit of background, we actually signed a very historic document. It’s called the Memorandum of Understanding. We signed that with the Indian Health Services because we’re doing outreach on native lands through the business programs, you know. We saw a need for a specific product for this community, and we really went out to communities across the country with – and we scanned of the feet, and the data spoke for itself.

MARTIN: And the data says what?

Mr. McCRACKEN: The shoe’s (unintelligible), for an example. But if you were to buy a Pegasus, an Air Pegasus Nike shoe, it’s a B-width for a woman, and 92 percent of the feet we scanned on native women across the U.S. wore a D-width are wider.

MARTIN: Really?

Mr. McCRACKEN: Yes.

MARTIN: What about the men?

Mr. McCRACKEN: And the men, it was very similar, and we went into D, EEE and EEEE in the data that we received.

MARTIN: Wow. I understand there’s also some specific design, like a heritage? Something that speaks specifically to heritage?

Mr. McCRACKEN: Yes. So, You know, there’s couple of (unintelligible). So the N7, on the end, really comes from the philosophy of the seventh generation, and I can explain to you how it was explained to me by my grandfather is that I am the middle generation of the seventh-generation philosophy, and I look back three generations for guidance and three generations forward for hoping to make a difference or a change. So that’s where the N7 logo, its – the philosophy reads. In every deliberation, you must consider the impact of your decisions on the next seven generations.

MARTIN: Hmm. Now, Nike shoes aren’t always so cheap. How will the shoe be priced?

Mr. McCRACKEN: The product will be available for tribal programs across the U.S., wellness programs, health-related programs at wholesale price, which is 42.80.

MARTIN: Can other people buy it in retail?

Mr. McCRACKEN: No. It will not be available at retail. The reason we positioned that way is – as we build our programs that really reach out to native communities, we look at this as another tool and another weapon to – for lack of a better word – to get folks into those clinics and get them motivated and get them active, because the commitment around this is for the native community is really to promote of physically active lifestyle.

MARTIN: But there are other groups that are struggling with obesity. There are other groups that are struggling with overall wellness, and there are other groups that might appreciate a hot shoe.

Mr. McCRACKEN: Yes. And I’m not the person to discuss that, but I’m really…

MARTIN: You realize what you’re doing here. You’re making like it’s a collector’s thing now. It’s going to just be crazy on eBay. Are you wearing some shoes right now?

Mr. McCRACKEN: I am wearing some shoes right now.

MARTIN: No. You’re wearing your shoes right now? Are you wearing the new one?

Mr. McCRACKEN: I am wearing my shoes right now.

MARTIN: The N7?

Mr. McCRACKEN: The new ones. The N7’s.

MARTIN: You’re wearing the N7? See, why do you want to hurt a sister like that?

(Soundbite of laughter)

MARTIN: Why do you want to hurt a sister like that? Size 8, man? Come on.

Mr. McCRACKEN: Size 8?

MARTIN: I’m kidding. Thank you so much.

Sam McCracken is the manager of Nike’s Native American Business program. He’s a member of – what tribe, sir?

Mr. McCRACKEN: I’m a member of the Fort Peck Tribes in northeastern Montana.

MARTIN: And he joined us from Oregon Public Broadcasting in Portland, Oregon.

Mr. McCracken, thank you so much.

Mr. McCRACKEN: Thank you.

(Soundbite of music)

MARTIN: And that’s our program for today. I’m Michel Martin. This is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. Let’s talk more tomorrow.