ESPN and the Tribeca Film Festival? No need to “Run for Your Life”…

Sportsbiztech takes a step back from blogging about gadgets and gizmos to examine what is trying to become a New York institution: the in-progress Tribeca Film Festival. Trying to emerge from the huge shadow of Sundance, Tribeca is in its seventh year and quickly already moved away from its original roots of revitalizing an area suffering economically after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

One of the ways that founder Robert DeNiro and Co. have shifted gears is to strike up a partnership with ESPN, which began last year, complete with sports-themed films, panels, contests, and an outdoor sports festival with celebrity appearances, games and promotional tie-ins with local teams. Dubbed the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival, co-founder Jane Rosenthal said at the time that “the films in this program not only tell the stories of athletes and competition, but highlight how sports can be a positive social force for bridging racial and political divides.”

At first, this convergence seemed to be a bit far-fetched, as there don’t seem to be many film snobs doubling as sports fans and vice versa. But a year later, it has suddenly made total sense. Growing up, I had always considered sports to be the original reality show, with competitive drama making much better theater than what currently passes as “reality” now. Magnify this reality on the big screen and, not surprisingly, film becomes a very appropriate technological medium with documentaries dominating the Tribeca/ESPN venture (nine out of 12 films this year, 11 out of 14 last year).

One of these is “Run for Your Life,” directed by Judd Ehrlich. The documentary focuses on Fred Lebow, the Romanian-born, disarmingly eccentric founder of what has become the New York Marathon. Completely devoid of narration, anecdotes from various friends, athletes, journalists, adversaries and even Fred himself piece together the tale of how the marathon came to be. The metamorphosis of Lebow’s escape from the Nazis to his adventures in the Big Apple is adorned with wonderful nostalgic shots of the city from the 1970’s. Lebow himself was not an athlete – “Fred ran like a duck, except he was slower than a duck,” a friend described – but was able to use his savvy to scrape together a global platform for his hobby, drawing from his experiences as a businessman in Manhattan’s Garment District and, believe it or not, his love for parties and young women.

The most pivotal and memorable part of the storyline is the buildup to the 1976 New York Marathon celebrating the U.S.’s bicentennial, detailing Lebow’s crucial decision-making as well as the involvement of the city to make the event a resounding success. After that, the story sags a bit like the middle of a long race: one too many first-person accounts and a couple of aspects of Lebow’s personal life are not necessary to the film. By the end, however, you’ll be cheering for Lebow as he literally crosses the finish line and appreciating what he did to transform the sport of running.

“Run for Your Life” screens five times at the Tribeca Film Festival (twice on Apr. 27 and once a day between May 1-3). For ticket information, go to www.tribecaespn.com.

Heal our heels, O Healus

Usually Sportsbiztech is the one searching for stories, but a reader contacted us wanting to pitch a story idea. How exciting!

And it happens to be a good one too: Ideasforlife.tv, a video Web site that features scientific solutions for everyday problems across England’s West Midlands, has created a clip hosted by European 5000m record holder Dave Moorcroft touting the benefits of the Healus running shoes. A visual account can trump any text description that I will attempt to provide, so here’s the link to the video:

http://www.ideasforlife.tv/watch/40

The shoes, developed by Dutch marathoner Adri Hartveld with Staffordshire University in the UK, are heel-less in order to deflect the shock resulting from heels pounding the pavement. These seem to differ slightly from the Masai shoes that I wrote about last month. While the Masai shoes also have slightly curved soles, they are also being touted as casual as well as athletic footwear. This makes sense given that some of the runners that tried out the Healus shoes in the video felt like the curvature in the soles forced them to lean forward, ready to nudge them into a run.

To learn more about the shoes, go to the corporate Web site at www.healus.co.uk. One slight problem, though. The site claims that the shoes can be purchased at Bourne Sports in Stoke-on-Trent, but they don’t appear to be sold on the Bourne retail site…

Insane sports tech gear for runners

While flipping through a Hong Kong gossip mag, I came across an article on an adidas “Consortium Series Micropacer Hamper.” Yeah, my thoughts exactly. Does this hamper automatically wash my clothes and save me a trip to the Laundromat?

It’s actually a pair of limited-edition, retro blue suede sneakers, with a “micropacer” embedded in the left shoe. Doubling as a stopwatch, this micropacer tracks the number of steps that the wearer takes. The two-page spread in FACE Magazine mentions that the shoes come with 10 accessories, including a USB drive, a lanyard and, of course, a Qee figure (small plastic toy figurines that originated in Hong Kong in 1995 and are produced in limited runs; if you live in the U.S., you can find them at places like Kidrobot). But back to the technology. The micropacer seems to be a gimmick, but the HK$2,980 (about US$383) shoes are actually a recent re-release of adidas’ 1984 editions, signaling their sustained popularity.

Another new gadget that adidas just released is the miCoach. The company partnered with Samsung on what it touts as a “total coaching system” for runners. It’s a phone! It’s an MP3 player! It creates a training plan just for you! The deluxe version of the phone comes with two separate devices that measure your running strides (a sensor is placed in one of your shoes) and your heart rate (a monitor in the shape of a belt is wrapped around your waist), then collects this data to be synced up with www.micoach.com, where you can create customized training plans based on the information that your phone receives. For now, though, you still need your actual human coach; although the deluxe version will put you out of pocket by US$613, the phone is only available in Europe for now.

Finally, a Swiss company has devised what it calls “physiological footwear.” Called Masai Barefoot Technology – this is patented – the shoes promise the following benefits:

• Better posture
• Increased “buttock muscle activity” (+9%)
• Increased “rear thigh muscle activity” (+19%)
• Increased “lower limbs activity” (+18%)
• Increased “abdominal muscle activity” (interestingly, the animated diagram doesn’t list a percentage increase for this one)
• Decreased stress on hip and knee joints (-19%)

Apparently this is possible due to the different layers in the sole, which conform to foot movements and distribute pressure throughout the feet, even when standing still. And unlike the previous two products, the Masai shoes are much easier to find stateside. But are they worth US$245? Maybe I really should crack open that pair of tights that I bought in Japan a couple of years ago that, when worn, claim to burn 416 kcals an hour. (Those were less than US$10.)