本帖最后由 steven 于 2010-5-6 23:19 编辑
Katana Laces: the perfect “weapon”, by Pietro Dal Pra
The term Katana refers to a long Japanese sword traditionally worn together with the wakizashi, or companion sword and is historically associated with samurai warriors. The two weapons when paired with each other represented the social power and personal honor of the samurai, the swordsmen of feudal Japan.
While the Katana was occasionally used to stab, the main use was to strike the enemy with a long sweeping slash. The samurai warriors, who underwent an intense and exacting training, were extremely capable at using the weapon with both hands. The most fascinating feature of the katana was its unique production process. It was manufactured by repeatedly heating, folding and hammering the metal, alternating layers of varying carbon content to provide maximum resistance and flexibility.
A block of steel was forged, hammered and then folded and refolded on itself. Each fold doubled the number of layers and thus after 15 folds the total number of layers totaled to 32768. Subsequently came the forging and polishing of the blade to determine its shape and size. The blade was repeatedly sharpened by using finer and finer grains of stones. The handle and the sheath, made in magnolia wood were equally as important and thus constructed with the same degree of care and attention.
From this Japanese masterpiece, some eight years ago came the inspiration for the name for one of La Sportiva’s climbing shoes. The challenge was to create a product to meet the demands of the vast majority of climbers, a boot that was comfortable to wear (thanks to the Velcro closure) and which guaranteed high performance levels on rock. The development phase proved long and arduous, but the final result well exceeded even the most optimistic expectations.
Katana has since become a cult boot, considered the best available boot on the market by a wide range of climbers. In fact, it is perhaps the most popular climbing boot and definitely the one most spotted on the feet of climbers wherever and whatever you climb. This comfortable boot has become the trustworthy companion of many “top” climbers on all types of walls and has accompanied the four time world bouldering champion to victory on more than one occasion.
How then could we ever come up with another model to fit in alongside Katana? But, over the years, La Sportiva’s R&D department have taught me a very important lesson; never doubt the power of inventive and evolution. Two years ago we set to work to produce a revised model of the classic Katana Velcro. Moments of great enthusiasm were followed by others of delusion, evolution and progress lead to important decision making; care, attention and passion for the product, accompanied us every step of the way. How do the two models, Katana lace and Katana Velcro differ? To use a metaphor which brings us back to the Japanese sword, we have basically taken the old Katana and have further polished it to provide extra cutting power.
A layer of P3 has been inserted to guarantee shape retention for the whole life of the boot, the toe has a slimmer fit and the heel has been revised with the aim of providing greater precision and safety on holds and the closure system now uses laces for a more precise fit. A new construction method for climbing shoes has also been introduced. Traditionally, a woven fabric is fitted to the inside of the uppers to guarantee stability and shape retention. The Katana lace model places this fabric on the outside of the leather. This small but very important feature increases the boot’s performance efficiency while the more comfortable leather remains in contact with the foot.
This contributes to making the new model totally unique as far as precision on micro holds is concerned. Just as precise as those sharp blades in the hands of the careful and attentive warriors. We have done our best to provide the best possible tool….the rest is up to you…. | 
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