Golf-Ball-Inspired Nike Track Suit Has Speed Holes, for Speed

Nike’s TurboSpeed, which sounds like the name of a Hot Wheels playset, is an ultra-lightweight track suit designed to help sprinters reach that extra height. Oddly, it’s inspired by the golf ball, which is why it has all those odd little dimples. But we prefer to think of them as speed holes.

It sounds insane to look to the slowest game in existence (like, yes, curling is slow, but at least you could slip on the ice or something) to improve the speeds of the fastest runners on the planet, but it actually makes sense. The dimples on a golf ball aren’t there for looks. Here’s Wikipedia’s explanation for why the dimples are there:

First, the dimples on the surface of a golf ball cause the boundary layer on the upstream side of the ball to transition from laminar to turbulent. The turbulent boundary layer is able to remain attached to the surface of the ball much longer than a laminar boundary and so creates a narrower, low pressure, wake and hence less pressure drag. The reduction in pressure drag causes the ball to travel farther.

Reduction in drag–definitely something you want in a tracksuit. And according to Nike, the dimples work, to the tune of up to 0.23 seconds. Seems like not very much, but considering how fast these runners finish 100 meters–that could be the difference between medals, or the difference between a world record or not.

[via FastCoDesign]