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Under Armour Micro G Drive “Volt” – First Look

We saw the Steph Curry PE of the Under Armour Micro G Drive he wore against the Timberwolves on monday night a now we have a look at a new “Volt” colorway of the new Under Armour silhouette.

This colorway has a black and volt make up in a two tone design on the upper. The bright volt fades to black towards the heel and the contrasting effect on the graphic reply make the design pop. The Under Armour branding is in white and we can see that the Micro G Drive will have a Micro G foam setup. On the tongue you can see the word “Auxetics”, auxetics materials have a negative poisson’s ratio which means they become thicker perpendicular of the applied force. Many people believe living bone tissues have this quality and with the release of the Anatomix Spawn that resembled a foot like structure it is no surprise Under Armour is exploring with new anatomy based technologies. No word on official information just speculation from what we can see. Stay tuned to WearTesters.com for more information about the Under Armour Micro G Drive.

What do you think about the auxetics technology? Let us know in the comments below.

 

Micro G Drive-1

Micro G Drive-2

19 comments
  1. Hi Chris,

    Great job on the site! FYI your reference to “Passion’s ratio” should be “Poisson’s ratio.” I’m sure not many people will notice, but my background is materials science and engineering and it just popped out to me like a sore thumb.

  2. Awesome info.

    Just a minor correction, the term is Poisson’s Ratio (http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/poissons-ratio-d_1224.html)

    While it sounds like a cool concept and all for the upper to have a structure that gets fatter instead of thinner as they stretch, I think the major flaw here comes back to the basics… why would you ever want the upper to stretch in the first place? Sure you want an upper that has maybe a touch of give but straighten that zig-zag line out and that’s a whole lot of allowable stretch.

    1. Materials stretch anyway when making lateral movements unless thick plastic fuse is used. Might as well help support the area known to flex. Kobe 9’s Flyknit was woven together with the same thought process in mind.

    2. No stretch whatsoever means stress-fractures(if you play at an athletic level). Shoes are all about the guiding the pressures, so you can utilize them back into your mechanics, you don’t want hard-stops, or edges.

    3. I agree Nene33, you wouldn’t want no stretch whatsoever. A small degree of stretch is good. But I think this auxetic design, if it were to truly functional, would give too much stretch. Either way, I’m sure the UA Micro G Drive’s will perform well. The upper material used and the fact they’re bonded to a base layer means they probably won’t give as much as the auxetic structure’s geometry looks like it would. With a mechanical / materials engineering background, I agree that an upper that essentially stays strong even when stretched out is a good property to have so the materials can handle the forces without permanent stretching or even failure happening. I’m just not sold on the application of the concept from what I see. While it may not be as visually cool, if they reduce the angle of those auextic bow-tie shapes, you’d get less stretch/accordion effect before the structure goes taught (i.e. becomes supportive) – again, I’m sure they’ll still perform well either way. Based on on that shape used though, in theory that shape alone probably gets a good 25-50% stretch going from bow-tie to rectangular. A geometry like this one is better suited for things like knee pads, elbow pads, blast curtains… things where a lot of stretch is needed and you want the strength of the material to be maintained, stretched or not stretched. A shoe’s upper needs stretch, but not the same stretch as the types of things this structure is typically useful for.

      The best example I can think of for purposely having no stretch is Flywire (in theory), especially the Kevlar versions which are advertised as only stretching 1 to 2%, whereas normal thread might stretch 20%. Guys like Kobe want to be able to push off without “losing seconds”. I would think he would rather have the control of that himself to avoid stress fractures, etc, rather than always have the shoe’s upper stretch to guide pressure both when it’s needed or and when it’s not.

      PS. Nighwing, congrats on the Power Rangers pickups, I was a huge fan of the OG MMPR too. I always wanted the Green Ranger dagger and Dragonzord growing up.

      1. it’s their first execution…probably later we’ll see further improvement
        very original…concept that haven’t been done by nike/adidas (cmiiw)
        hope they patent it…for their own good

  3. Loving the innovation, and how UA has a feel for REFINEMENT, instead of making all, or nothing promises(like adidas, or Nike do).

    Not gonna get them, I’m all about the Anatomix at the moment, but great to see how progressively they keep refining the shoes.

  4. Looks like I’ll cop those. I loved playing in my spawns, but I wore them out. Haven’t picked up another pair to throw into my rotation.

  5. Print looks like a million razors, EMO KIDS DON’T CUT YOURSELF!!!
    No no wait, “with this shoe, you’ll be cutting up the defense in no time!” Patent Pending…

  6. I like the concept and thought behind the Drive. Like I said when the Spawn dropped last year, I’m all for shoes that work with the actual anatomy of the foot. The Spawn was/is a great performer, just wish the traction was thicker and ‘gripped’ the floor like the xx8. I haven’t seen images of the traction yet for the Drive.

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