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Project Amplify: Powered footwear for running and walking

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Re: Project Amplify: Powered footwear for running and walking

#51

Post by Swizec »

rich_sasha wrote: post #45
PuissantSheep wrote: post #19

For those of you who don’t “see the point” of a device like this, what you are failing to see is your own personal use case. The use cases I can see for others are “anyone who might find this useful or fun”. To me, that means 1) people with medically compromised joints who would like to engage in experiences that their bodies don’t currently allow. 2) people who want to challenge themselves by making these joint addi…

I find running incredibly boring, because the scenery changes so damn slowly around you. I would happily put in the same effort for the same time, but go substantially faster to make it more fun. Not sure I would buy this product, but I see more than 0 use for it.

> because the scenery changes so damn slowly around you

Have you considered running faster?

But seriously though, I’ve gotten pretty decent at running (3h15min marathon PR) and the difference between hiking a trail and running the same trail is kinda bonkers. These days I can run a trail in 2 hours that took me 6 hours to hike 10 years ago. Hits totally different. The whole dynamic changes.

Hiking feels immensely boring now

PS: If you run fast enough you don’t even notice the scenery.

Re: Project Amplify: Powered footwear for running and walking

#52

Post by igor47 »

bdangubic wrote: post #50
mixologic wrote: post #46

Yeah, but do they still work when us-east-1 goes down?

if it does I am buying this for my daughter to replace roomba which doesn’t :)

... Because currently, your daughter rides around on a Roomba? And this will allow her similar freedom of movement, but more fault-tolerant?

Re: Project Amplify: Powered footwear for running and walking

#53

Post by rich_sasha »

Swizec wrote: post #51
rich_sasha wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find running incredibly boring, because the scenery changes so damn slowly around you. I would happily put in the same effort for the same time, but go substantially faster to make it more fun. Not sure I would buy this product, but I see more than 0 use for it.

> because the scenery changes so damn slowly around you Have you considered running faster? But seriously though, I’ve gotten pretty decent at running (3h15min marathon PR) and the difference between hiking a trail and running the same trail is kinda bonkers. These days I can run a trail in 2 hours that took me 6 hours to hike 10 years ago. Hits totally different. The whole dynamic changes. Hiking feels immensely bor…

I mean... I run as fast/far as fitness permits. I'm not going slowly on purpose!

Re: Project Amplify: Powered footwear for running and walking

#54

Post by adrianN »

jackyinger wrote: post #44
MichaelNolan wrote: post #41

A lot of comments are casting doubt on why “athletes” would be interested in this product. In the bike world, electric pedal assist bikes have become very popular. I have some family members who are avid cyclists. They do 100+ miles a week. As they have gotten older (60+) they were losing the ability to engage in social rides with their bike friends, but e-bikes have solved that issue by giving them just a small boos…

[flagged]

If it were solely about pushing the limits of the body, cyclists wouldn’t obsess about aerodynamics nearly as much and competitions would be about average watts over n-minutes or something like that.

Re: Project Amplify: Powered footwear for running and walking

#55

Post by stevage »

> This makes it easier for everyday athletes to walk or run more often, for longer amounts of time, while having more fun — adding movement to their lives, extending their walking commute, or helping them to enjoy the run for another mile or two.

The people I know who run all do it for the exercise, not because they like the running. Why would you want to extend it?

Re: Project Amplify: Powered footwear for running and walking

#56

Post by ivoflipse »

mewpmewp2 wrote: post #4
SilverElfin wrote: post #2

I don’t get the point. Maybe there’s a therapy angle? But otherwise if someone wanted to go faster they could go to a bike, e-bike, or car.

I would like to have something like this if it helped me with e.g. shin splints, or similar, because I really love running, but I tend to overdo it and I don't have any other options than asphalt to run on. Not sure if this one would be good for shin splits though. I guess this could potentially just be a fun thing to run a bit faster, but that alone wouldn't be worth it for me. But if it allowed me to balance where…

I was going to comment the same thing, rather than push off harder, I'd hope it help brace for impact and relieve some of the weaker muscles.

Yes, I should perhaps be doing strength training, but I have limited hours to exercise and I'd prefer to spend them running rather than training so that eventually I could be running.

Another thing that happens is that your technique gets worse during longer runs, making you more prone to injuries. Maybe a device like this could either support you so you can run longer runs or compensate to make sure you don't hurt yourself.

So if this device helps with reducing running based injuries, I'm all for it

I have an electric cargo bike that I put in one of the lowest settings, if I cycle at the top speed it doesn't help much if at all. But accelerating from a dead stop is nice. This could be similar

Re: Project Amplify: Powered footwear for running and walking

#57

Post by 2muchcoffeeman »

jackyinger wrote: post #44
MichaelNolan wrote: post #41

A lot of comments are casting doubt on why “athletes” would be interested in this product. In the bike world, electric pedal assist bikes have become very popular. I have some family members who are avid cyclists. They do 100+ miles a week. As they have gotten older (60+) they were losing the ability to engage in social rides with their bike friends, but e-bikes have solved that issue by giving them just a small boos…

[flagged]

I’ve heard of dirt jumpers using e-bikes to get more laps in for training to help them get familiar with the track.

Are you saying they are not athletic because they didn’t do all their training on a push bike?

Re: Project Amplify: Powered footwear for running and walking

#58

Post by albert_e »

MichaelNolan wrote: post #41

A lot of comments are casting doubt on why “athletes” would be interested in this product. In the bike world, electric pedal assist bikes have become very popular. I have some family members who are avid cyclists. They do 100+ miles a week. As they have gotten older (60+) they were losing the ability to engage in social rides with their bike friends, but e-bikes have solved that issue by giving them just a small boos…

The linked article says this at the end:

> * If you have a body, you are an athlete.

Re: Project Amplify: Powered footwear for running and walking

#59

Post by rkomorn »

adrianN wrote: post #54
jackyinger wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

If it were solely about pushing the limits of the body, cyclists wouldn’t obsess about aerodynamics nearly as much and competitions would be about average watts over n-minutes or something like that.

Random point (and definitely not agreeing with OP), but Zwift (and probably others before) has brought on an age of watts/kg competitions.

And a lot of being aerodynamic on a bike is athleticism: you need to be flexible enough and appropriately trained to be in the right posture. The bike frames, skinsuits, etc, are all in the "marginal gains" territory.

I still think OP's take is wrong though.

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