The Finish Line, Inc. has partnered with Nike and Sports Illustrated on Campus to take the recently launched Nike Free 5.0 technology on the road to select college markets. Finish Line is in the midst of a 90-day mall exclusive on Nike Free 5.0 footwear and carries the widest assortment of colors for both men and women.

Nike Free mimics natural, barefoot movement, which strengthens the muscles in the foot to help runners achieve optimal performance with minimal injury. Because most runners dont use these muscles very often, Nike Free takes a few weeks of getting used to. That’s why it’s important that people who buy the shoe train their foot muscles before exercising in Nike Free.

“Barefoot training is being used more and more commonly to strengthen and reawaken athletes feet,” says Nike spokeswoman Maggie Mahler. “When conditions are ideal-such as college campuses with golf courses-barefoot runners found that their feet were growing stronger, and that with stronger feet, you can train longer and be less susceptible to injury”.

A product knowledge training program, developed exclusively for Finish Line employees, is required for all of the Finish Line management teams and sales associates in the select Finish Line stores that carry the shoes. These stores also carry a unique ‘Free’ training guide that customers can take home to help use this innovative technology correctly.

In select markets, Finish Line and Nike are utilizing interactive display units for the first time ever in Finish Line stores. These displays provide consumers with a visual tool to learn more about Free technology.

“Finish Line saw success in the initial sales of Nike Free 5.0,” says Tim Geis, Finish Line’s Senior Vice President and General Merchandise Manager. “We have taken advantage of our mall exclusivity on this shoe by exposing the product to our consumers in new and unique ways, and we plan to further our efforts by going out and interacting with our core consumer on college campuses around the country.”

Finish Line and Nike have also partnered with Sports Illustrated on Campus (SIOC) to launch Nike Free to core consumers. Finish Line will be holding on-campus events at the following universities: Arizona State University, Indiana University, University of Washington, University of Pittsburgh, Syracuse University and Ohio State University.