Getting Pedroia Back on the Field

Every cloud has a silver lining, and sometimes that lining is built to withstand a foul ball at 100 mph. On the disabled list since the end of June, All Star 2nd baseman Dustin Pedroia may have been out of commission, but his enthusiasm wasn't. While still recovering from a recently fractured foot , Dustin was itching to get back in the game – so much so he took to the field in a walking boot and crutches. Before his injury, Dustin was set to play in the All Star Game debuting his specially designed New Balance cleats. Check out what he would have worn on the field.

Knowing how eager he was to start playing again, New Balance's team sports group set out to create a custom-engineered shoe to protect his foot from further injury. But when designing the new cleats, some serious creativity was necessary. Whatever we created, we had to make sure it would stand up to the impact of the foul ball that fractured his foot in the first place.

Times like these call for our state-of-the-art Sports Research Lab. Specifically, the “Smash Lab” portion of it, the special area where New Balance products are put to the test to ensure they can withstand extreme pressure. And the tougher the tests, the tougher the shoe. To recreate that violent impact, Sports Lab specialists Trampas Tenbroek and Pedro Rodriguez strapped custom NB prototypes into a fully sensored foot mold and placed that rig under a crash-test machine that simulated a ball traveling at 100+ mph. Watch video below of what that collision looked like in the lab.