$300 Shoe Claims to Boost Vertical Leap

Two Los Angeles-based entrepreneurs have created an heir to Reebok’s famous “Pump” basketball shoes—and say their APL Concept 1 actually increases players’ vertical leap. It’s in the top-secret Load ‘N Launch technology, which, Ryan Goldston tells CounterKicks, compresses as the player puts weight on the front of the foot as he prepares to jump, then expands to add to the explosive jump itself.

Sounds great, but if, as Athletic Propulsion Labs’ motto goes, you aim to “stop dreaming, jump higher,” a pair’s going to run you $300. “When we designed the shoes, it wasn’t designed with a specific price in mind,” adds Goldston, who started APL with twin brother Adam, informed by their father’s work at Reebok. “We wanted to create something that really was revolutionary, so we didn’t want to reverse engineer anything.”
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