Sorry for a double post I guess I was just trigger happy (a problem off and on the court

)
I got a couple of good points from a highschool coach that I know. As soon as I mentioned the topic he laughed and said that no professional athlete would ever admit that shoes make an impact for the fear of looking like a cheater and also to safe guard his personal secrets. After several jokes at my expense here is what he had to say (I'm gonna try to be as accurate as possible about what he said):
To say that shoes make a huge impact on the players game is ridiculous: player's shooting doesn't get better, his passing doesn't get better, his understanding of the game doesn't become better BUT to say that it has NO impact is also not true. "Why do Nike and Adidas drop so much money on their development departments?" he asked me.
He also compared the old school adidas Promodel with the latest Nike and Adidas lines:
first of all you are 1inch+ higher off the ground and closer to the sun

, secondly the combination of material and shape gives you a trampoline-like sensation especially on a two-step and last but not the least they are much lighter. He even gave me an example of a player he had some years ago, who suddenly exploded in the midseason: started getting down the court faster for D and started get better rebounding. So he asked him if the kid was working out outside of the practices and the kid just said: "I got lighter shoes, coach."
So I still stand by my opinion that EA should explore this option in their next release. And I'm not talking about ridiculous effects like +10 Dunking ability or +15 Off. Awareness but let's say guard shoes +2 agility but -2 hardiness, hi shoes +2 hardiness but -2 speed, light shoes +2 jump and so on.
P.S. Here is an interesting link for your consideration:
http://www.onitsukatiger.com.au/brand_h ... istory.cfm