"... Beckham’s are custom-made versions of the Nike Vapor Jet 3.0, which features molded fingers, a “strategic mesh,” and “MagniGrip CL” on the palms and fingers. MagniGrip CL is a sticky material made from a mix of neoprene and silicone designed to help receivers hold on to a ball."
That's about the only "tech" in this article. Wish they would've done a little bit more like go into why neoprene and silicone are particularly good at gripping a football (which is made out of ...?).
Yea I thought the most interesting thing was the very brief mention of "Future models might use one of the gecko-inspired materials that let people climb up walls using Van der Waals attractive forces."
I think there have been attempts at trying to create Gecko-like adhesives like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geckel. But I am pretty sure there are a lot of details that Geckos have evolved/optimized for - surface area/shape of their setae/legs, angle of contact from their hyperextended toes, ability to stick in different humidities etc. - that would be difficult to recreate for football receivers on the field to actually take advantage of Van der Waals forces.
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[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 24.1 ms ] threadThat's about the only "tech" in this article. Wish they would've done a little bit more like go into why neoprene and silicone are particularly good at gripping a football (which is made out of ...?).
I think there have been attempts at trying to create Gecko-like adhesives like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geckel. But I am pretty sure there are a lot of details that Geckos have evolved/optimized for - surface area/shape of their setae/legs, angle of contact from their hyperextended toes, ability to stick in different humidities etc. - that would be difficult to recreate for football receivers on the field to actually take advantage of Van der Waals forces.