Concave Discuss the New Range of Soccer Cleats

The recent release on the advanced Concave range of soccer cleats has people asking ‘what the heck is all this new technology about?’ Recently, we had the opportunity to review the Concave PT+, resulting in pretty positive results, although it left me with questions about how a company could come up with this unusual design. In order to get to get some answers, we tracked down Dave Frederick (aka ‘Concave Dave’), the head of US and UK Sports Marketing who was more than willing to enlighten us! Here is how it went down:

Dave, thanks for taking the time to talk to us about Concave. Lets start at the beginning, how was the company formed?
Dave: In 2007 a group based in Toronto acquired the assets of an Australian company that initially developed the beginnings of the Concave technology. Since 2007 we have been concentrating on refining the technology and bringing it to the soccer community.

In your experience, what have the challenges been getting the Concave brand out to the public?
Dave: Being a new brand in a very mature congested space has presented significant challenges, add in the global economic climate over the past 18 months and we have had our hands full of overcoming challenges.

The market has been tough! There has obviously been a tremendous amount of research and development tat as gone into creating the PT range, can you tell us a little about this?
Dave: The initial concept started with the idea that striking a round object with a rounded surface can be improved upon (convex to convex). The concave surface on the top of our boots is a curve perfectly matched to a size 5 soccer ball. We have continuously worked on improving the design on the instep to harmonize it with the boot and player’s foot. We feel the current design, with the Metaguard integrated into the shoe upper achieves our goal.

A lot of people put trust in buying online these days making even tougher for new brands. In your opinion, if people invest, what should people expect when they buy a pair of Concave’s?
Dave: We are in the midst of our UK and US release right now. We will have the shoes in soccer specialty shops (football specialty shops in the UK), certain online stores, as well as ecommerce available through the Concave site so people in regions where there are no specialty stores can have access to the shoes. Buyers can expect a very comfortable boot which will give them the benefits of our technology increasing both power and accuracy. Touch and feel for short passing, control and dribbling are all evident after a training session or two. In addition to the playing functionality there is the added benefit of increased protection, particularly to the metatarsal area of the foot. The likes of John Terry and Michael Owen could probably attest to the benefit of having added protection and not missing months worth of games.

What professional players have tested or currently wear the cleats?
Dave: We are in the process of negotiating with several pros playing in the EPL and SPL, as well as other European leagues. Scott Palguta of the Colorado Rapids and Brandon Barklage of DC United have been wearing Concaves throughout the current MLS season.

SoccerCleats101 appreciate you taking the time to discuss the Concave range Dave! We encourage anyone that wants to know more about the cleats, or anyone who has purchased a Concave cleat, to leave a question or comment below. Dave has assured us that if anyone has a question he is more than willing to respond. Currently you can get your hands on a pair of Concave PT-1 at soccer.com for an amazing $97.99.