1) Footwear Science Journal and Footwear Biomechanics Group Membership

The first edition of the official journal of the FBG, Footwear Science will be out in the coming months, great work by Ned Frederick to spearhead this initiative. To support this enterprise and to benefit our members the Footwear Biomechanics Group has arranged for substantially reduced subscription rates through purchasing an FBG membership. Membership fees are extremely low: $55CDN for regular members and $30CDN for student members and include an annual subscription of Footwear Science. Regular subscription rates are over $300US! Membership will also entitle you to reduced Symposium registration fees.

We really need your assistance to make our new journal sustainable so I encourage everyone to purchase a membership. Our group does not make any money on these memberships, rather the membership fees are directly transferred to the publisher to cover the costs of the journal subscription. Thus you the members benefit from the substantially reduced journal rates and by getting a critical mass of subscriptions we can ensure that our new journal is sustainable. Memberships can be purchased online at our website (www.footwearbiomechanics.org).

2) 2009 Footwear Biomechanics Group Symposium

In addition to the excellent keynotes from Benno Nigg, Peter Cavanagh and Martyn Shorten we will also have an informal question and answer session with these three distinguished guests so everyone will have an opportunity to ask their burning footwear biomechanics questions.

Additional highlights also include an invited Soccer Footwear session organized by Thorsten Sterzing to coincide with the upcoming World Cup in South Africa. Also, to celebrate his retirement, Bart van Gheluwe has agreed to give a personal overview on “Foot Biomechanics and Podiatry: Research Meets the Clinical World”.

The abstract submission deadline is March 15, 2009 and details for abstract submission will be posted soon on the conference webpage (2009.footwearbiomechanics.org). Notification of acceptance will be provided by March 31. We will be updating the conference webpage with details regularly so please check back often.

3) FBG Executive Nominations

Nominations are now being accepted for candidates for the following FBG Executive Board positions: Chairperson Elect, Secretary General, Executive Board Members and Student Member. To nominate a candidate, please send the nominee's name and email address to Dr. J. Hamill at jhamill@kin.umass.edu.

4) 2009 Nike Prize

Don’t forget about the May 1, 2009 deadline for submission for the $25,000 Nike Prize. Further details can be found on our webpage. 

The new FBG website has been launched. To better enhance the communication among FBG members, our new site provides several forums and a member profile database. You will need to register as a member to access these functions. Please feel free to contact us if you have any question and/or suggestions. Opinions from you will be highly valued and appreciated.

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Congratulations to the recipients of the $25,000 Nike Award for Athletic Footwear Research 2007:

Liane Azevedo, Mike Lambert, Christopher Vaughan, Martin Schwellnus,
University of Cape Town

The award winners were announced at the Eighth Footwear Biomechanics Symposium at the National Yang Ming University in Taipei, Taiwan, June 27-29, 2007. This was the second time Nike has presented this award, with the inaugural award presented in 2005.

Nike Award for Athletic Footwear Research 2009