By Craig Kojima, Star-Bulletin
Craig Stutzman shows off the dry weather (left)
and wet weather shoes.

---

Adidas picks St. Louis to wear
its new 'Feet You Wear' line
of football shoes

By Pat Bigold
Star-Bulletin

AH, "barefootball." If only it were possible.

St. Louis head football coach Cal Lee said he remembers how George Ornellas always declined to wear socks when he played for him.

"I asked him, 'George, why don't you wear socks?' and he said, 'Coach, it's because I feel like I'm running barefooted.' And that stuck with me."

Shoes have always been an encumbrance to local boys. They'll remove footwear at every opportunity, whether at home, in a car, in a movie theater, in a stadium or in a restaurant.

Lee knows that Ornellas, who broke all of the state's prep football scoring records in 1995, would have preferred to have done it all without a shred of fiber on his feet.

So when adidas showed up at Lee's office in January pitching a feather-light wisp of an artificial turf shoe quaintly called, "Feet You Wear," Hawaii's most successful prep grid coach was sold.

"When I tried the shoes on, I had that same feeling George talked about -- like my feet were in the turf," Lee said.

Having found what he considers the next best thing to "barefootball," Lee worked out an arrangement with adidas to supply enough pairs to shod the entire Crusaders team in 1997.

The shoes cost $110 apiece but the deal has adidas tossing in an all-weather shoe with more pronounced traction on the sole for free.

The shipment of 200 pairs arrived yesterday and you can be sure St. Louis will stand out in them. That's because they're white.

That's right -- the state's most powerful prep football program is adding a bit of panache to its appearance.

Although all but two member franchises in the NFL now wear white shoes, the style hasn't been popular for the past few years at the prep level, and for obvious reasons.

For one thing, it's not easy to keep white shoes clean and for another, it's a bit ostentatious.

But Lee believes that putting white on his players' feet will make them feel like they're running on air.

Not that the 11-time defending Prep Bowl champions, ranked nationally throughout the decade, need any more psychological edge.

But Lee's creativity will not be confined to the chalkboard.

"I just like white," Lee said.

"Notice that Cal's always worn white high-top shoes," said Lee's wife, Valerie, with a chuckle.

"White gives you the feeling that you are moving faster," said the coach. "I wouldn't wear black -- it makes you move slow. I give black shoes away."

Oahu Interscholastic Association football coordinator Dick Townsend said none of the 21 schools in his league wears white shoes. "But white does make you faster," he deadpanned.

"Feet You Wear" shoes are still a relatively new concept.

This is the first year that college and prep teams are using them.

The shoe is similar to the adidas products tested by individuals such as Kobe Bryant and Troy Aikman.

In trade jargon, the shoes are a trend toward "the enhancement of functional performance" and "mechanically efficient" footwear.

Lee said only a limited number of the shoes were manufactured and only certain schools in the nation are trying them out.

Notre Dame, Nebraska and Tennessee will wear them at the collegiate level.

"And I think only about two high schools on the West Coast will have them," Lee said.

"Because of the barefoot feeling, it allows you to cut better, grip better, and I also believe it will prevent injuries.

"Under the shoe, you can see the sole is kind of shaped like a foot. It has more joints and can bend better because of the form."

Senior slotback Craig Stutzman, who got one of a few sample pairs months ago, said his time in the 40 went from 4.5 in 1996 to 4.4 at a University of Utah football camp.

The 5-foot-11, 180-pound senior observed that, "White psyches you up -- with light shining on the shoes, they blur when you run."

But, all illusions aside, Stutzman said the shoe increases his sensitivity for the field and that's critical.

"It feels like you just have a covering on your feet," he said. "You can stay on the balls of your feet, and it's great for quick reflexes. If a defender comes at you, you can get away easily with a sidestep or a cut. Your feet are one with the turf."

The sole of the Feet You Wear shoe is contoured to the bottom of the foot.

"They're designed to conform with the natural movement of the foot," said local adidas sales representative Kelvin Kawamura,

Unlike most athletic shoes, there is no sole cushioning in "Feet You Wear." Kawamura said most football foot injuries result from "motion control vs. cushioning."

The makers say the leather-bound adidas footwear makes up for the lack of cushioning with extreme sensitivity for the foot.

Lee said the team has worn Nike shoes for the seven or eight years but he turned down both Nike and Reebok when they came knocking this year.

"I looked at several different kinds of adidas football shoes, but this is their top-of-the-line, and they really wanted us to try it," he said.

"They can wear whatever they want," Kamehameha head coach Kanani Souza said.

"They're not going to get any faster than they already are," said Punahou head coach Dan Morrison.

St. Louis will debut in the new white shoes on Aug. 22 at Aloha Stadium in a rematch of last November's 7-0 Prep Bowl victory over Waianae.