ENVIRONMENTAL CHAMBER PROVIDES ON-DEMAND CONDITIONS YEAR ROUND
New Balance Sports Research Lab
BOSTON, MA
One of the most prominent brands in Boston Landing is New Balance. The neighborhood is home to the company's world headquarters, two retail stores, a fitness club, the TRACK at New
Balance, and the New Balance Sports Research Lab.
Measuring and improving performance
The New Balance Sports Research Lab is equipped with
3D dynamic motion capture arrays and force plates that record athletes' directional forces as they explode out of starting blocks, sprint around left track corners, and shoot free throws and three-pointers on a hardwood basketball court.
New Balance athletes share their insights in a broadcast-quality recording studio, where sports scientists receive streams of inspiration for shoe and apparel innovations. The lab is equipped with 3D foot and body scanners and other devices that cobblers could not imagine in 1906 when the flexible arch insert perfected by New Balance made its debut.
Chamber simulates un-Boston-like environments
Beyond the track and hardwood court is a 400-square-foot room with a gasket-sealed door and reinforced windows. This is the environmental chamber, where temperature, relative humidity,
and oxygen concentration can be adjusted to simulate any climate and any elevation up to 17,000 feet above sea level. Training for Pikes Peak in June? Dial up 14,000 feet, 52 °F, 33%
relative humidity, and go to work.
New Balance is constantly striving to make products that keep athletes comfortable regardless of the weather.
The chamber allows New Balance to test shoes and apparel in any climate year round.
It is worth noting that not all test subjects in the chamber are human.
A manikin moves in
The chamber has a permanent resident a
70-pound manikin that can sweat and regulate its own body temperature. Wearing shoe and apparel prototypes, the manikin works out in the chamber
Athletes entering the lab feel right at home following
