Up
Walk into any shoe store at the mall, say the word ‘basketball’ and you’ll walk out with your feet in little astronaut suits: laser-stitched, lunar impact, kryptonite polymer launching-pads cooked up by a team of Nobel laureates in the jet propulsion lab at MIT. But walk into a martial arts supply store, ask to see the latest in high performance footwear and you wind up with something Ghengis Khan probably wore at the siege of Shantung.

So what’s up with that? Money is what’s up with that. If you’re one of the athletic footwear giants, you’re just not all that jazzed about the measly couple of thousand pair of martial arts shoes ‘those karate guys’ are buying every year. Sure, you might throw something into the ring, but you’re so busy studying the incredibly fickle buying habits of America’s twelve bazillion basketball players that you’re not paying much attention to where it lands or whose feet it actually lands on.

 
Which is where we come in, we build hi-performance athletic shoes. The guy who put this show together spent over 15 years at a major footwear company. He grabbed some friends (all smarter, one claiming to be more handsome) with over 80 years experience in the athletic footwear business, and started DISCIPLINE FOOTWEAR. They call themselves the "Discipline Footwear Group", which is the Latin phrase for, "a couple of guys without jobs".

The objective of the group is to build great shoes for the athletes who are being neglected by the monster companies. Our lead designer happens to be a point fighter, so what better place to begin than with the martial arts. If people think Joan Crawford's kids were neglected, they should see what martial artists have been forced to endure for the past couple of hundred years.

We'd like to tell you a little bit about our shoe.

 
 

Every martial arts shoe — ours, theirs, anybody’s — is a three part deal: Upper (the boot; you know, where your foot goes), midsole and outsole. And while all three components contribute to the overall performance of the shoe, the midsole is probably the most crucial. Why? Because it’s the cushion between your foot and the cold, hard, unforgiving floor. If you skimp on the midsole your knees, shins, ankles, feet pick up the tab.

Midsoles are traditionally made from EVA (sponge) rubber. They’re die-cut (think ‘cookie cutter’) and bonded to the upper. But we don’t do it that way. Because if you heat EVA and inject it into a mold — a more complex, time consuming process — you create a stronger cushion. Your midsole retains its shape. You keep that spring in your step.
 

So that’s what we did. And we could have stopped right there and still gone to market with a breakthrough martial arts shoe. Instead, we wrapped the midsole around your foot for unprecedented lateral support. And why do you need lateral support? Think about where a horse stance places your weight. That pressure against the outside of your foot? That’s lateral pressure. Our wrapped midsole supports that pressure.

Injection molding is complex and difficult at the production level, but more than any single feature it’s what separates Discipline from the pack. We do it. They don't. Let’s take a look at the outsole...
 

If you’re wearing an athletic shoe, and there’s an excellent chance you are, take a look at the bottom — the outsole. See any stitching? Nope. Why? Because shortly after the dinosaurs called it quits, shoe guys began experimenting with glues and bonding chemicals, an alternative they’ve pretty much perfected. Stitching is an anachronism, like black-and-white television.

So is old necessarily bad? Not always, but in this case, yes. Because when you puncture holes in the outsole you weaken the rubber. Take a look at this light colored sole. See the little ‘moat’ that runs along the outside? That’s the stitch groove. As you work the shoe harder and harder the rubber outside the stitching will chip and fall off.
 

So we left it out and attached our sole with a state-of-the-art bonding process. And why aren’t all martial art shoes made this way? Because any change in the way you make your shoe costs money at the production level, and the other guys just don’t want to spend it.

The Discipline outsole is 5mm wider for increased stability. It’s thicker for longer life and better shock absorption. We incorporated a pivot point at the ball of the foot into a radical tread design, then we roughed up the sole, gave it a sandpaper-like texture. And it’s non-marking, so your sweeps won’t leave those little arcs all over the floor. It’s a better outsole but is it a better shoe? Let’s look at the boot.
  

OK, the boot. We started with a naturally soft, lightweight leather. As in NO break-in period. As in a full 15% lighter than any full grain leather on any martial arts shoe anywhere on the planet. We added breathable mesh side panels to give it a distinctive look, sure, but they also keep your feet dry and knock off another couple of ounces.

We’ve introduced, and this is a first for martial arts shoes, a pre-molded sock liner for comfort and superior arch support. And we replaced that cheesy vinyl lining in those other shoes you may have seen with a plush, durable, woven lining that holds your foot about a million times better and works with the side panels to provide additional ventilation.

 
  
That ‘V’ in back? That's a heel notch. And maybe this won’t be listed under Quantum Leaps of the 20th Century, but it frees up your Achilles tendon. Less resistance means increased flexibility. Flexibility is speed. Speed is power.

And up till now you’ve had to deal with that spandex thing that fifteen or twenty years ago probably seemed like a good idea. It’s called a fit sleeve but who does it actually fit? It’s unstable.
It stretches. The tongue slides around. You never really feel anchored. So we yanked it, replaced it with a conventional lacing system and a no-slip lace. The difference is immediate and obvious. The performance benefits are huge.

 

 

      

Eastern Arts can can take your order right now. You can either order on-line in our secure server store or give us Susan a call at 352-589-9882. Click here to see a sizing chart, prices and a link to our secure server on-lion store. If you can't wait, just click on the images of the shoes and you will be taken directly to our store.

If you want us to call you, send Susan an e-mail and she will call you. Let her know the best time.

email: sales@discipline

 

 

 Dealer: POB 217 Mount Dora Florida 32756 : 352-589-9882