18 May 2006

Dundee student socks it to design world

A special sock designed to protect the feet of top class trampolinists will be on display at this year’s degree show at the University of Dundee’s Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art.

Design student Michael Wood created the sock for his final year project after seeing the injuries endured by trampolining friends.

"Their feet were bruised, blistered and calloused," said Michael (22) from Kelty. "They were wearing normal sports socks but these made their feet sweat and their skin became damaged as a result. There are trampolining shoes around but the trampolinists I spoke to didn’t like them because they are too hard."

Michael began his search for a more comfortable and practical alternative by studying the training methods of top class trampolinists and the stress impact on the foot of repeated bounces.

Part of his research was to work out how many times an athlete jumped in practice and in competition.

"It came to about 19500 jumps every six months in training and 204 jumps per year in competition," revealed Michael. "So I designed two different types of sock, one for training which is more robust and one for competition."

"The university trampolining club tested them and gave me a lot of feedback about them. They told me what they liked and what they didn’t."

Michael also approached Dr Rami Abboud, an orthopaedic surgeon at Ninewells Hospital, who guided him on his findings.

His research showed that what was needed was light-weight, high impact material distributed around the contours of the foot, where it comes into contact with the trampoline, to reduce friction injuries.

Some of the materials tested by the trampolinists included denim and suede.

Michael, who has received three year medals during his studies at Dundee, is hoping to find sponsorship in order to continue his studies on to a PhD level.

The degree show opens to the public on Saturday 20 May and runs until Saturday 27 May. It is staged within the DJCAD buildings on the main University of Dundee campus.

For further information contact:

Hilary McNally
Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate Dundee, DD1 4HN
Tel: 01382 384768
email: h.mcnally@dundee.ac.uk