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a.i.t

2005-2006

By Christopher Robertson Technology Consulting

July 2^nd, 2024

adidas innovation team (a.i.t)

I arrived in Nuremberg for the first time on the 25th of September 2005, and was very kindly met at the airport by the godfather of sports engineering, Dr. Tim Lucas. I was there for an engineering internship with the adidas innovation team (a.i.t), a position I had bothered him about for the best part of 2 years, sending emails, searching online for tidbits and tips, calling reception and posting at least one letter to his attention in Herzogenaurach.

It paid off. I was at home one evening when the landline rang and my dad came up the stairs to tell me that a “Tim Lucas” wanted to speak to me. My stomach dropped. We had a nice chat and he told me that while he appreciated my enthusiasm, they were only able to hire post-grads, so I should keep in touch. I had just started my third year of studies at the time and that felt like an absolute eternity.

Over the next months, I didn’t hear a thing and received no response to my enquiries. The summer break was fast approaching and I decided to continue down the consulting engineering path and took a placement in the HVAC design engineering team with DSSR in Glasgow.

The Saturday prior to my start at DSSR, I got a call from Dr. Lucas asking if I had time to meet him in his old stomping ground of Byres Road (Tim earned his PhD at Glasgow University) for a coffee on the Monday. Of course I couldn’t say no, but it meant having to make some awkward excuses to my new colleagues as I made a sharp exit and jogged along the road for the interview at the Grosvenor Hotel.

A few days later it was confirmed; I was offered a 6 month placement as the first undergraduate Mechanical Engineering Intern but it would mean deferring a year of studies and figuring out what to do with the remaining 6 months. I would worry about that later.

Tim dropped me at the Hotel Krone in Herzogenaurach and kindly let me know that as it was a Sunday, nothing was open - and for that matter, nothing would be open on the Monday either due to a public holiday. I took my bike and cycled towards Erlangen. Welcome to Frankonia, happy exploring.

Product Landscape

Reflecting now on the product output of that period and the fact that the FIFA World Cup in Germany was scheduled for the following summer, I truly couldn’t have picked a better time to join the organization. The pictures below represent some of the projects that were being launched, commercialized or developed during my stint within the group and the conversations that took place around them formed the foundations of my sports-tech apprenticeship.

As the mechanical engineering intern, I was tasked to build material models as input for our FEA (Finite element Analysis) simulations, allowing us to virtually test geometry variations of the A3 Megabounce/ microbounce & Gigaride VizTech footwear range. Once the design was locked, molds could be opened and parts injected to allow for compression testing to compare the real-life response to that of the simulated unit.

The engineering was tough - the materials were highly process sensitive, the geometry of the units and systems were fickle, we were experimenting with dual material/ color injection and we had to grade it across the 21 sizes of a full size run. Not to mention the patience required to assemble it all together...

Additionally, I supported the apparel team by applying a similar approach to material and geometry definition to inform the development of the techfit powerweb range.

The GCS unit (Ground Control System) took up the remainder of my time, trying different combinations of materials and geometries to work through challenges of squeaking, breakage and stick/ slip.

This was truly a golden period in my life, made even more special as I was invited to stay for an additional 6 months to take my internship up to a complete calendar year, allowing me time to truly enjoy my projects, catch a glimpse of a young Lionel Messi training at the Herzogs Park hotel and meeting my to-be wife at the Herzogenaurach Bierfest the night before the World Cup Final.

Life changing. Thanks Dr. Tim, I think I owe you a beer.

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