Mosher's Footblog

[mosher]

Dear footbag community,

This is my big thing that I’ve been working on for a long time now. I’ve been mostly top secret about it all since I didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up, it should be expressed here at the start that it is still not time for that. What is appropriate at this stage is that I be candid and share with you all what I have been working on and what we may have to look forward to.

I will start the story at the World Championships this past summer the night that Jan Zimmerman shared the Quantum with the footbag world. Up until shortly before euro’s/world’s when it was debuted the only people that knew of the project were the planetfootbag people. They intentionally kept it secret while I did a parallel project under my own steam here in Canada. I received an e-mail from Jan a day or two before everyone found out and in it he explained to me all they had done and why I had been intentionally kept out of the project. Partly because of logistical constraints of me being an ocean away but mostly because they underestimated me. They didn’t expect me to produce tangible results, even if they didn’t lead to any official shoes on my part. Jan and I agreed to discuss future endeavours over some pints at World’s.

So the night of their revealing I was wrought with a mixture of extreme and conflicting emotions. I was SO happy to see that leaps and bounds had been made toward legitimizing footbag! What a slick performance! Jan delivered the speech that I so dearly wished to all along, it was inspiring and he said all the things we wanted to hear as he walked us through the slide show.

The time finally came to go and actually see and feel the shoes. I got a pair in my hands and instantly flew through the well travelled checklist in my mind of shoe features. Right away I was crushed with disappointment. I could tell from first glance that they had wasted their opportunity. The shoe was just a poorly made laver imitation that would fall apart and still needed mods to be worth playing in. (and has proven to be just that)

I held my tongue.

I havn’t given any reviews of the quantums, everyone knows that it has flaws but I wanted everyone to support someone that was passionately pursuing a project I believed needed to be finished whether I did it or Jan did. So I bought my 60 euro Quantums and wore them in support and told others to do the same.

The thing I realised was that these grass roots efforts can only take us so far. Yes I understand the Quantum 01 is the first serious shot at it and that the 02 will likely be much better. But the technology is so absurdly expensive and our sport is still so tiny that the numbers do not add up to enough to pay for high-performance.

I will add as a side note that I also did not firmly believe in Jan as a design leader. The whole project is run and organized by VERY experienced freestylers that I respect greatly…. But not a single one of them have spent any significant time playing in anything other than lavers. Without perspective no design can be well thought out.

After the presentation I didn’t want to talk to anyone, I was so upset at the missed opportunity to make something great and the fact that if I hadn’t been excluded perhaps it wouldn’t be the case. I had worked so hard for over a year working on my prototypes and projects, all the while everyone was cheering me on. I eagerly looked forward to saving the world and finally making a great shoe for us all to love and use and promote the sport with. And then I felt so crushed and deflated, everyone knew I’d done so much work and it’d ultimately fizzled to nothing and all the while planetfootbag was watching from the sidelines making their shoe in secret.

I really didn’t want to talk to anyone that night as I feared lashing out in anger so I went for a walk and found a shady place to sit and cry while I listened to everyone celebrate.

We have all thought on the much grander scale, a world where footbag is known to all and we are respected as athletes without hesitation or consideration. For anything like that to happen we need the support of big business, it’s too bad that we are still so small and not worth the time of day to anyone major. It’s seemed like an insurmountable task to get the heavy hitters to even notice we’re screaming at them for shoes that are made for us.

I too was stumped as to how this could be achieved, how could a footbag player get their foot in the door at a big company to really get them to listen? I figured I was a good candidate as I was about to graduate with a really useful degree and I have extensive knowledge of really useful stuff. And then one day I got an e-mail…

I was hesitant to believe the legitimacy of it but the guy claimed to be an intern at Adidas and that he had heard (from Cole Hobson.. somehow, anyways thanks Cole!!!!!) that I was experienced at modifying shoes for playing footbag. They were working on a prototype ‘beach culture’ shoe and he wanted to know if I would be willing to take a pair of the prototypes and modify them for playing footbag. I accepted the offer and a pair of AdiEC1’s were sent to me in Kingston.

The shoe was actually almost awesome! I did some pretty heavy mods to it including resurfacing it all and changing some angles but the end result looked like something you could totally shred. I wrote a full report of all that I did and why I did what I did including pictures and everything.

Months went by. I had kept all this work nearly entirely secret except to the few people that I hung out with at the time. I hinted at the work I was doing all along in my blog but I never knew what directions it would eventually take.

I eventually got to see the AdiEC2, which was the revised version of the prototype based on my report. AS IF Adidas actually read my report and then changed something they were doing as a result of it! Whoa! It had SICK mesh surfaces that were like landing pads, which makes it unfortunate that the shoe was ultimately canned.

But my connection to Adidas had been established and there was no way I was going to let go of my delicate grip on something potentially so massive.
They were impressed with my work and that lead to the suggestion that I should apply for an internship with them. It took lots of work to put together and iron out my application and CV (curriculum vitae.. like a weird version of a resume where you talk about shit you’ve done and accomplished, not just that you worked at Wendy’s in grade 11 (which I did)) but I finally submitted it with peaked emotion.

Here is what I submitted:

February 23, 2007

Adidas AG Tom Mosher
BU Fusion 205 Digby Road
World of Sport Oakville, ON
Adi-Dassler Straße 1 Canada L6J6A8
91074 Herzogenaurach


Dear Mr. XXXX,
As you may know, several months ago Wolfgang Dittrich contacted me for input on the adiEC1. He had heard that I was a well-known specialist at modifying Adidas shoes to play footbag and offered me the opportunity to modify and review the adiEC1. I accepted the offer; the challenge was precisely what I am most passionate about, functional design. In April I will graduate from Queen’s University of Kingston, Ontario, Canada, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering. I am writing to ask to be considered for an internship with the BU Men’s Fusion as the next stage in my career.
I play the graceful, explosive and healthy sport of freestyle footbag. Beyond clothing, the only equipment used are shoes and footbags. Since no shoes are made for footbag, players look for shoes that have appropriate surfaces. Many years ago, this led players to begin using the Adidas Rod Laver to play footbag for its smooth open surfaces and ease of modification. I began footbag in ‘Lavers and later switched to Climacool 1’s for their superior performance. The tangible benefits appropriate footwear brings are truly impressive.
I have been on a quest for the perfect pair of footbag shoes. I have dissected and altered dozens of different shoe models, constantly testing and altering various aspects of the shoe design. I combined school and footbag when I did a formal design review of the Adidas Rod Laver for an Ergonomics course project. The success of that project led me to propose to do the design of the ideal footbag shoe as my mechanical engineering thesis project. It was approved; I was given a $1000 budget and a team of three other students. I coordinated and completed the evaluation and redesign of the New Balance CT 300 and the Adidas Climacool 1. The process of designing the ideal shoe and then subsequently working with a professional shoe cobbler was very revealing. From this I gained appreciation for shoe construction and design for specific purposes.
Beyond just playing footbag, I have run a footbag club (Kingston Footbag Militia) for the past three years, organized and hosted three tournaments, and competed at the World Footbag Championships twice (29th place @ 2006 WFC). I was also selected to be an official judge and master of ceremonies at WFC 2006. Additionally, I took up stitching footbags and now have an international following, selling custom footbags to enthusiasts around the world.
As an athlete, I wish to push myself to my physical limits without restriction from my equipment. As an engineer, I find myself analyzing all my tools for better performance. Since shoes are tools, I think a lot about them and how they function. That alone might be sufficient inspiration to apply for the internship. However, my drive goes much deeper, the sport I love most requires very specific footwear that does not yet exist.
I have learned to appreciate that great things can be accomplished with determination, perseverance and a flexible mind. I am on the verge of university graduation and I look forward to applying what I have learned and gaining from future ventures. I know I can make a significant contribution to the development of an Adidas footbag shoe, and with experience, could contribute to the design of shoes and equipment for other sports. It would also give me great satisfaction to work with the most respected sports shoe manufacturer in the world. I would greatly appreciate the opportunity of a personal interview.

Sincerely,

Tom Mosher


Curriculum Vitae


Personal Data

Name: Tom Mosher
Address: 160 A Princess Street
Kingston, Ontario
K7L 1B1 Canada
Mobile phone: (613) 329 - 8467
E-mail: [email protected]
Day / Place of birth: October 4th, 1982 in Oakville, Ontario
Marital status: Single
Nationality: Canadian

Education

09/2000 - 08/2007: Mechanical Engineering (Bachelor of Science)
Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario

09/1995 - 06/2000: Oakville Trafalgar High School
Oakville, Ontario

Work Experience

02/2005 – 10/2006 Footbag Tournament Organizer
• Great Lake Area Shred Symposium (GLASS) in Toronto Ontario (02/2005)
• Kingston Invitational Circle Kicking and Shred Symposium (KICKASS) in Kingston (10/2005)
• Kingston Invitational Circle Kicking and Shred Symposium 2 (KICKASS2) in Kingston (10/2006)

01/2006 – 05/2006 MECH 462 – “Ideal Footbag Shoeâ€

[Iron Clad Ben]

Excellent news Tom. :~) <=== single tear of joy. From one mechanical engineer to another I am extremely proud of you, and slightly jealous of your success so far, and the opportunity you have to combine your passions in this awesome project. You are very lucky, but as they say luck is simply preperation meets opportunity (don't think I'm being some hater saying "oh you just got lucky", that's not what I mean at all). Your hard work has paid off.

Obviously there is much more to be done and I'm sure you will pursue that with gusto. Best of luck to you in Deutschland next month. We are all very excited to hear what happens. Thank you for all you have done for footbag.

Ben

[pips]

I remember reading a couple of your hints on here. Great job on what you did so far. I wish you luck at your interview.

[bigdirtyfoot]

Congratulations Tom. Et bonne chance! I miss our chats on IM - thanks for sending me this link, hopefully I will catch up with you soon! Sounds like an incredibly exciting opportunity.

[PegLegHolly]

Wow, awesome Tom!! If anyone deserves the internship, it's you! Good luck, buddy... you'll knock them dead!

[Langstaff]

Congrats on the interview! The best of luck to you, this is a very exciting announcement.. (It was great to finally meet you last Saturday as well, we are in love with the new footbag!)

[Pyroman924]

Was ein Uberraschung! (My Computer doesn't do umlauts. ) Congratulations man! You definitely deserve it. Go blow them away!

[Pengu]

I'll miss you! But I support you and I am super dee duper excited for you as well.

<3

[mosher]

I'll miss you! But I support you and I am super dee duper excited for you as well.

<3

I feel really lucky to be supported, loved and missed by such a great girl.

Thanks for all the really nice and enthusiastic comments everyone, I can't express how much it means to me to know that my friends are behind me.

We will all benefit if this sitch works out well, good times are ahead!

Also, one main reason I wanted to share all this with everyone is that I didn't want to have to continue keeping all my best friends in the dark on a subject that means alot to both myself and all of them. I hope everyone understands why I waited until now to share, I wanted my foot to be solidly in the door before I even open my mouth.

Thanks, friends.

[zeroman13]

Congrats Tom! Good luck with the interview!

[dp]

Very cool, good luck.

[Nathan]

thank you for your hard work tom.

[mc]

you're the shit, mosh. best of luck.

[HG]

good luck and thank you!

[Colin]

All the best Tom. Your focus and drive have been so clear for so long that I have no doubt you'll succeed, be it this time or another. Hopefully this time

Thank you.

[hacksterbator]

Tom dear friend,

i am so very very excited for you! i know how much you love footbag, and how you are so dedicated to it. If they can see it as well, then there is no chance in hell that you won't be given the opportunity.

may the footbag gods shine rays of good shred light upon you and fill your heart with polly filler and steel shot!

[habitat]

Props Tom. I wish you luck.

[mahhkohh]

wow, that long post made me cry, a bit. nice too hear, go smoke them, go mosher!

oh, and tom, will you have time for a little shred in munich? if so, i would come to munich, just to take this oppurtunity. otherwise i might just fly to berlin one weekend, if you´d tell how long you stay.

see you

[Badnfluenc]

great to see someone stepping up, i wish you the best of luck man

[Skippy!]

Tom, I'm super excited for you and footbag in general. It feels like the future is near, and it'd be huge if you were a proponent of that. Sick dude! 905 shred represent!

You know I'm behind you all the way, buddy...

...not in the gay way though, homo.