We’ve compiled a few points to consider after viewing the cool video effects and considering about switching to Court Grip:

The eastbay site says that Court Grip “has acetone as an ingredient, with some silica blended in as well”.

1. Acetone is an organic solvent and releases volatile organic compounds into the air but in small amounts probably no significant amounts, cumulatively who knows. Basically, Acetone is the active ingredient in nail polish remover and evaporates quickly.
2. The instructions tell you to allow it to dry because not allowing it to dry could it would pose a danger to the athlete because it would be slippery. On the plus side the acetone might come in handy for removing gum and other sticky substances from the floor.
3. Silica to enhance grip is nothing new, we’ve been using it in our S-N Gripp for about 8 years or so. Silica however, does this by creating a micro-rough surface which is great for hands but in our opinion not so much for athletic shoes. While it might enhance grip initially, if it does this through the use of silica, this new product can only do that by using the micro-rough surface to grip against the floor’s finish and thus abrading the floor finish.
4. No AIR SHIPPING since it would have to be categorized as a hazardous material by the D.O.T.
5. An entire team can walk on and off a Slipp-Nott in less than 30 seconds. There is no prep, nor application time and no “drying time”.
6. Slipp-Nott can be and has been shipped overnight for important games, tournaments and one time for a Saturday Bulls game per Jordan’s request.
7. Every part of our product can be recycled.
8. Slipp-Nott improves grip on ANY smooth, indoor floor, even tiles. Many schools and facilities use composite floors. Court Grip is only effective on wood.
   Why? Silica will have no effect on another hard surface like composite floors.
9. Slipp-Nott is used by facilities and teams not only for safety and performance enhancements but also for marketing and branding because you can customize it with your school, team or event logo. Check out some of the THOUSANDS of designs we’ve made over the years.
10. On average a single large sheet costs about one dollar . If you peel off one sheet per quarter, using a single large Slipp-Nott may cost you about $4 ($8 if the team/event/facility uses two large Slipp-Notts like they do at the Final Four) to clean the shoes of an entire team for a game. Compare that to an approximate cost of $1 person per game.

Let’s be conservative and say someone only needs to use the product 3x/game. 50 applications divided by 3 means about 16.7 games per bottle. That is a little under $1/person/game. Do the numbers. Slipp-Nott is FAR MORE cost effective.

We can unequivocally guarantee, even on a microscopic level that our product will do ZERO harm to floor finishes because our adhesive is water based and contains no solvents nor microscopic grit.

The only surprise a Slipp-Nott user may face is to step on a Slipp-Nott mat and find that the the sheet is not sticky because it is already covered with dust and dirt from previous use. In that case, all they have to do is take 5 seconds to bend down and peel the top sheet off the way (Michael Jordan did until he retired) thousands of Pro and amateur players all over the world do everyday. On the other hand, what is the worst that can happen to an athlete if they apply any liquid product to their shoe soles and step on the court without letting it dry completely? How safe would that be for athlete’s ankles, knees or career?

Slipp-Nott can only be obsolesced when we do away with dirt or truly revolutionize the way we can handle dirt and the playing surfaces involved. Unless a product can continually “renew” the surface of the shoe sole or somehow eat the dirt, no product can “last longer” than any other product because we are dealing with a combination of:

• dirt on clean, naturally grippy surfaces (athletic shoe soles)
• how well, how quickly AND how conveniently a product initially removes the dirt from the athletic shoe surface
• how FAST and conveniently the product (or YOU if you need to manipulate the product on your shoe soles) can do it again when called upon to do it again after your shoe sole “reloads” with dirt, there are 15 seconds left on the clock and your coach yells your name out.

As for Wade’s assertion that “the effects are short-lived (“a couple of seconds”)”…

If the floor is very clean, you sneakers will stay clean for a long time. Theoretically, if the floor were spotless, you’d only need to use any product one time and it would last forever. If the floor is poorly maintained, (like a court covered with dirt as an extreme example) as soon as you stepped on the floor, they’d be dirty again. In other words, the clean effect will last for as long as the shoe sole remains clean and the length of time the sole  will remain clean depends on how clean the floor is to begin with.

The bottom line is that the effect could last 3 minutes it could last 20, the determining factor is the CONDITION OF THE FLOOR NOT THE PRODUCT. As we told Howard Beck during our the phone interview, it is quite possible that if they have some kind of binding agent that temporarily bonds the silica (micro-fine powder/sand/grit) to the shoe sole, it is possible that to the extent that they can get the silica to stay on (which honestly can’t be very long without actually using glue!) the shoe, it may initially give the perception of increased grip but that grip would not come free, the floor finish would pay for it. You have to pay to play and in this case, you pay for the product and the facilities pay to refinish the floor.

This isn’t magic folks, no product (so far) is able to eat, destroy, nor hide the dirt that tracks onto the sole of the athletic shoe and once it is on there, it is there until it is removed. A small amount won’t really affect your traction but it is cumulative and while it is there, it is going to reduce contact between your rubber/composite soles and the floor and therefore impede traction. Your traction will get worse and worse as the dirt continues to build until you clean your shoes how you choose to do it and how quickly is up to you. You can get up and walk across a Slipp-Nott traction system the way the highest paid, most gifted basketball players of all time have chosen to do (and still continue to do today sans Mr. Wade of course because since according to him, he does not really get a benefit from it, he’ll be using his roll on exclusively) or you can grab a bottle, take the cap off, wipe each shoe sole, put your $15 bottle away so it does not walk away and wait for them to dry — the choice is yours.

Have a look at these and you’ll see what I mean:

http://www.dunkthefunk.com/basketball/what-is-the-difference-between-basketball-shoes-and-normal-shoes

http://tbsportsblog.com/what-is-the-difference-between-basketball-shoes-and-normal-shoes/

http://www.jerseyfaves.com/index.php?main_page=more_news&news_id=1582

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081002210314AATNoEA

http://www.letsplaygamesnow.com/what-is-the-difference-between-basketball-shoes-and-normal-shoes

Come on, if you’ve taken the time to get yourself a domain or set up a blog account somewhere, why not come up with original content???

Your thoughts?

How to choose a traction product

Update:  One company, “Fast-Brake.com”, has made some major upgrades to their white plastic base – they now have a decal on it with their company name.  Their press release also announces that:

• As an upgrade, their new bases will be even stronger AND LIGHTER!  If you read our previous post, the imitation Slipp-Nott bases in our opinion, were too light to begin with.
• They will be offering a new “base customization” option for teams, businesses and individuals. Which is odd since they’ve always had that on their site (though like Bigfoot and the Loch  Ness Monster, we’ve never actually seen a picture of one)
• They have also made changes to the color of the mat. It used to be white but the new color is going to be…wait for it, wait for it…WHITE!

Compare the offerings and do the math on how much a sheet is costing you and then make your decision. Our bases are made of either molded or machined ABS sheets covered by a sheet of rubber bonded to the bottom to completely protect your floor. The competition uses a die-cut plastic sheet with soft foam or a few patches of rubber stuck to the bottom. Sure cutting up patches of rubber to stick to the bottom of the base saves them money, but it also makes the base lighter and more likely to lift off the floor when walked on by an athlete.

The safety and well-being of your athletes depend on the equipment they use. How you spend and what you spend your money on is up to you.

Feel free to send us links to any other comments or reviews on Slipp-Nott products.

Ok, back to Shakin’ n Bakin’!

S-N Gripp is a revolutionary solution that eliminates the adverse effects of palm perspiration, while enhancing your grip and repelling moisture. It performs like “liquid chalk” that can be applied under gloves. It is environmentally friendly, non-sticky, non-tacky, does not clog pores, and will not “cake up.” S-N Gripp is also hypoallergenic.

S-N Gripp can be used wherever wet hands are a problem, including: Archery, Badminton, Baseball, Basketball, Batons,Billiards, Mountain/Rock Climbing, Bowling, Cheerleading, Football,Golf, Gymnastics, Hockey, Lacrosse, Pole Vaulting, Polo, Racquetball, Rowing, Rugby, Softball, Squash, Table Tennis, Team Handball, Tennis, Tug-of-War, Under Gloves, Volleyball, Weight lifting…

Visit our website for a video demonstration: http://www.slipp-nott.com/S-N-Gripp.html

Feel free to email or call us at 1-800-776-6754 if you have any questions.

If you are ready to try this amazing product, pay just $5 for shipping and handling and we will ship you TWO FREE 2 oz. bottles for you to try! Offer good while supplies last.

Thank you for your continued interest in Slipp-Nott products.
With best regards from the Slipp-Nott sales team

Well yes, but courts are a special type of flooring.  Court floors are used by athletes running up and down the court as fast as they can making starts and stops to elude their defenders.  In order to do this effectively, you need TRACTION.  Traction is important not just at the beginning of the game but throughout the entire game.  For athletes to get good, consistent, predictable traction on an indoor court they need a combination of:

1. clean shoe soles that are made of “grippy” materials that have as much CLEAN surface area as possible allowing it to make contact with
2. a clean, smooth, dry, hard floor.

That may sound simple but quite a few conditions need to be met to create this perfect scenario:

• Premium athletic shoes, with good high-friction material on the soles
  

  Brand new shoes worn outside for 5 minutes

• Sufficient shoe sole surface area free of particulates to provide adequate friction to resist the athlete’s lateral (along the floor in this case) inertia
• A hard floor that is:
  • Clean (or relatively free of loose surface particulates —for example: gravel, dirt, dust, skin particles, smoke particles, etc.)
  • Dry
  • Properly finished with a high quality finish (for example: clean, synthetic floor or clean, smooth hardwood without slippery wax build up)

In many cases neither athletes, nor the coaching staff have much control over how clean the floor happens to be at game-time.  The reasons vary from inaccessibility to floor maintenance equipment, such as mops, courtcleans to just plain — “no time!”  Luckily traction can still be easily attained by combining the shoe soles and floor cleanliness, the operative word in that sentence is “combining.” Just think of the combination as a formula:

Floor cleanliness + Shoe  sole cleanliness = (varying degrees of) Traction

Better traction is what you get when you use clean shoes soles on relatively clean floors.  While you may not always be able to exercise any direct control on the floor maintenance/cleaning schedule, teams can still influence how much traction their athlete’s shoes provide them.  Take an active role in how clean the athlete’s shoe soles are throughout the game by using Slipp-Nott traction mats.

By providing Slipp-Nott traction mats on the sidelines for athletes to step on before checking into a volleyball or basketball game, teams will actually be be cleaning the floor as they clean the athletic shoe soles!  How is this possible you might be wondering?  Well, once an athlete steps onto the court with a clean, naturally sticky (squeaky) rubber sole, the athlete will have the best traction available to him on that court at that specific time.  The surface particulates will also dislodge from the floor and stick to the shoe sole, depending on how dirty the floor is and how naturally sticky the shoe soles grab the floor (or the dirt!)

In addition to improved indoor traction, you will be indirectly contributing to floor cleanliness and oddly enough become a source of passive floor surface maintenance!  In our next post “Floor Maintenance: Should Street Shoes Be Allowed or Not? Part 2,” we’ll explain why and how.  In the meantime, take a look at these images:

typical dirt and grit on athletic shoe sole

Surface of a Slipp-Nott adhesive mat showing the dirt and grit removed from shoe sole