High-End Cleats for World Cup Champions / Polyamide excels as a material for soles

Dusseldorf (ots) -

- Cross-reference: photo ( Michael Ballack with the Predator) is
available at http://www.presseportal.de/galerie.html

The tickets have sold like hot cakes—and once again excitement is
mounting. In the summer of 2006, the world's top soccer players will
come together in the twelve World Cup stadiums around Germany. Fans
will be flocking in droves into the Hamburg, Munich, Leipzig, and
Kaiserslautern arenas. Millions of spectators will be eagerly
awaiting to see Thierry Henry, Francesco Totti, David Beckham, Andrey
Shevchenko, Ronaldo, and Michael Ballack in action,and the one thing
they all want to know is who'll be the absolute mega-star of the 2006
FIFA World Cup championship games.

But no matter who'll be holding up one of the most important
trophies in international sports to the Berlin sky on the evening of
July 9, one thing is already clear: He’ll be wearing the best soccer
cleats ever. The times when soccer players like Fritz Walter and
“Boss”Helmut Rahn fastened any old pair of shoes on their feet are
well and truly over. Soccer shoes today are high-tech products, or,
more precisely, high-chem products.

Records are broken every day in sports, but peak performance
of this kind also depends on whether you have the right
footwear. After all, there’s a good reason that every kind of
sport today has its own particular shoe. At least in sport’s top
echelons, every athlete wears a shoe that is custom-made to
his or her own special needs. As a compromise to customization,
a number of different makes can be manufactured, depending
on what particular weather or turf conditions the
shoes are used in. In soccer, in particular, it does indeed make a
big difference whether you play the ”most important game in
the world” on a dried-out, stone-hard field or on soft grass, or
on a snow or ice-covered field, or on artificial turf.

- Cross-reference: 3 photos (manufactoring of Predator) are
available at http://www.presseportal.de/galerie.html

Without the right material, even soccer heroes would have a hard
time playing their game. That’s the perennial challenge that both the
developers of various shoe components and the producers of raw
materials have to face.Degussa AG of Dusseldorf, Germany, through its
High Performance Polymers (HP) Business Unit, is one of the most
important material manufacturers.” Because of their excellent
properties and the ease with which the material can be worked during
manufacturing, our plastics are the material of choice for the outer
soles of topquality sports shoes,” comments Michael Beyer, who is in
charge of the sports segment in HP's Market Development.

The ideal product requires a three-way relationship.
Innovations are possible only when manufacturers, molders,
and sporting goods producers cooperate closely with each
other. This is exactly what happened when adidas Salomon AG
of Herzogenaurach, Germany, designed its latest top model,
the Predator® Absolute. The challenge was particularly tough
in that the new sport shoe not only had to be stylish and sleek,
but also offer a quantifiable advantage over past models.
”Basically, there’s a conflict between weight and stability, so
we're always looking for materials that combine high rigidity
with minimal weight,” explains Klaus Knoerr, materials developer
at adidas.

The result is definitely something to write home about. The
sole is lighter and much more flexible. The shoe is highly stable,
too, ensuring minimal impact on the Achilles tendon. As with
the previous model, the exchangeable cleats are clip-fastened
to the sole, where they are firmly anchored and can’t break off.
In terms of ease of manufacture, the developers searched in
particular for an easy-flowing compound, yet offering consistent
processing properties. It also had to be a material that
could be colored as desired, and which produced an unbreakable
bond between the individual components.

At first glance, flexibility and stability might seem like
conflicting properties. Degussa’s polymer VESTAMID® E, however, fits
the bill perfectly. Despite its high elasticity, the material always
reverts to its original state. As a result, soles manufactured from
VESTAMID® persistently retain their original shape, even after heavy
use. ”Temperature has hardly any effect on its most important
properties: toughness, impact resistance, and rigidity,” Beyer points
out. And that's the crucial difference to molding compounds used in
sport shoes in the low-price segment. The properties of cheap soles
change with temperature. After a relatively short time, they take on
the shape of the wearer's foot,and the shoe’s cushioning and
functional elements no longer work properly. A pair of worn-out old
shoes are neither good for the feet, nor for dribbling the ball.

- Cross-reference: photo (Predator's sole) is available
at http://www.presseportal.de/galerie.html

The Predator uses a polyamide 12 elastomer - just to mention
the polymer’s correct chemical name - in a separate front
and rear sole,and an outer heel cap. This separate construction
offers several advantages. First, it reduces the weight and provides
the highest degree of flexibility. Second, both sole components
can be adjusted to be more or less rigid according to
how heavily they will be used. The chemists employ an ingenious
technology to obtain this effect. They take components
with different properties and group them together in alternating
sequences to form so-called block copolymers. In this case,
sections made of polyamide 12, which lend rigidity and stiffness,
alternate with sections of polyether, which give the material
its flexible, elastic behavior.

- Cross-reference: photo (Testing the Predator) is available at
http://www.presseportal.de/galerie.html

The special “combination plastic” also offers major advantages
for the manufacturing process. “The material features
highly constant properties within narrow specifications, and is
neutral in color,” explains Hans Schaufler, managing director of
framas Kunststofftechnik GmbH, Pirmasens,Germany. The
company is the world’s largest supplier of functional sport
shoes, manufacturing between five and six million pairs of soles
per year. Degussa’s material can be processed well, it’s easy to
color or overmold, and is excellently suited for all new printing
processes.“ That's something that’s particularly helpful when
manufacturing brand items, most of which are finished in a
particular company color or design,” Schaufler points out.
When the material is specially prepared using a patented additive,
it offers further possibilities for designers, such as applying
logos by laser. Anti-counterfeit identification can also be added
to help prevent brand piracy.

adidas launched its new Predator on the market in early December
2005, just in time for the Christmas business. “We Degussa is the
global market leader in specialty chemicals. Our business is creating
essentials-innovative products and system solutions that make
indispensable contributions to our customers’ success. In fiscal 2005
around 44.000 employees world-wide generated sales of 11.8 billion
euros and operating profits (EBIT) of 940 million euros. have sold up
to a million pairs of the previous models annually, which have been
on the market since 1994. We expect the World Cup to provide an
additional boost,“ says Jürgen Wormser, senior project manager for
footwear at adidas Salomon. Degussa has again supplied the custom
materials, this time for the eighth Predator generation, which means
it will be playing its part in the World Cup games. And the rest -
meaning the goals - we’ll happily leave to Ballack and all the other
big names.

Surer footing, greater kicking power

Because the Predator’s sole is relatively soft, Degussa and framas
developed a special fastening system for the cleats, using VESTAMID®
molding compounds with a fiber glass content of 23 percent. These
provide sufficient rigidity to the polymer, creating a very strong
bond between the cleats and the sole. As a result, the cleats don’t
work loose from this bond or press into the foot. Because the
material is highly impact-resistant, it prevents the cleats from
coming out on hard cinder surfaces. The era of the old screw-in
cleats is over. Today’s state of the art is all about spring-loaded
snap-on connections and cast aluminum cleats, and these are a cinch
to change - even after several soccer matches. The cleats, no longer
round but oval, have been rearranged on the Predator’s sole to give
the soccer player a surer footing and greater kicking power. The same
applies in soccer as in other sports: For peak performance, the best
gear is just good enough.

- Cross-reference: photo (Top teams under contract at adidas) is
available at http://www.presseportal.de/galerie.html

- Cross-reference: photo (Predator's sole) is available at
http://www.presseportal.de/galerie.html

Degussa is the global market leader in specialty chemicals. Our
business is creating essentials-innovative products and system
solutions that make indispensable contributions to our customers’
success. In fiscal 2005 around 44.000 employees world-wide generated
sales of 11.8 billion euros and operating profits (EBIT) of 940
million euros.

Originaltext: Degussa AG
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ISIN: DE0005421903

Degussa AG
Bennigsenplatz 1
40474 Dusseldorf
Germany
www.degussa.com

Contact:
Hannelore Gantzer
Spokeswoman
Corporate Communications
T +49-211-65041-368
F +49-211-65041-527
hannelore.gantzer@degussa.com

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available for download on our web site:
www.degussa.com/en/press

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