Introduction: NES Night Gear

Most athletic injuries that occur at night happen due to poor equipment and vision impairment. There is a greater risk of playing sports at night at local parks or schools because they aren't always properly lit. However, athletes prefer playing or training at night due to the conducive environment, cooler temperatures and seclusion.

The NES proposed solution is The Lightening Bolt. It is a new and improved cleat to prevent injuries due to playing at night.

Step 1: Idea

Our idea is to limit risk that come with playing soccer at night. Although there are many ideas for this (see pictures above) they don't fully solve the problem. With the highlighted field, the light up ball, and the light up net there are still places with dark spots. The highlighted field, doesn't actually light up the field just the out of bounds places. The light up soccer ball, if dirty is hard to see. And it will get dirty. The light up goal is an excellent semi solution, but thats all that is lit up. These are limited solutions.

However with the cleat, you can see what you are doing as a play and where you are going.

Step 2: Methodology

In our brainstorming aspect of the desing we talked about the three different ways we could light up the soccer field. After deliberating and coming up with pro's and con's individually, we came back together and decided which one was more likely to succeed. After careful thought we decided on the soccer cleat. We chose the soccer cleat because its the hardest thing, and most neccessary thing, to see at night. It allows the other players to see each other, as well as their own feet.

Step 3: Prototype Design

When constructing the shoe we had to think about the effeiciency of it. If we are going to make light up cleats, they have to be durable and water proof. With lack of money for supplies we relied on our innovational minds. We decided to use an LED strip that we could glue to the sole of the shoes. We took a 9 volt battery pack and built it in to the inside heal of the shoe. We used wires to attach the two. Now with wires, we have to make it so they don't get pulled out easily or messed up if it rains. We constructed the wires so that they go in the shoe, that way they can't get pulled out while playing and if it rains they won't get wet. We made the shoe so that you can either replace the battery, or charge it. That was it has a long life span.