Basketball footwear, is it a case of style over substance?

About the Project

The purpose of Basketball footwear is multifactorial, the underlying substance that encompasses functionality, support and comfort which directly influences a player's performance is potentially now of less importance due to the stylistic trends that have been established due to ‘signature shoes’ which are associated with successful players.

The origins of the modern training shoe and the success of certain shoes by key brands are well documented both in text and on screen. Many active basketball players can also be referred to as ‘Sneakerheads’, who are defined as individuals who collect, trade and/or admire sneakers (Matthews, Cryer-Coupet and Degirmencioglu, 2021). These individuals potentially purchase Basketball footwear not for performance or injury prevention purposes, but because they are fashionable or are from a brand that they have an allegiance too. As such, should the emphasis on footwear selection return to performance and injury prevention purposes as outlined in papers such as Brauner, Zwinzscher and Sterzing (2011), to avoid the potential of a player's talent and performance being suppressed (Demirl and Yalcin, 2020).

The scope of the opportunity is considerable, and any methodological approach would be supported be that quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods, the latter is recommended, however.

Supervisory team

• Director of Studies: Dr Darren Cooper
• Supervisors: Dr Christopher Holland Dr Alejandro Vaquera
• Research Group: Human Performance Research Group

Application Process

To begin the application process please go to https://www.worc.ac.uk/research/research-degrees/applying-for-a-phd/.

The Interview

All successful applicants will be offered an interview with the proposed Supervisory Team. You will be contacted by a member of the Doctoral School Team to find a suitable date. Interviews can be conducted in person or over Microsoft Teams.

For further information or an informal discussion on this project, please contact Dr Christopher Holland (c.holland@worc.ac.uk)