Basketball is a very popular sport not only in the United States but also the rest of the entire world. An article from futuremarketinsights.com explains that the “Basketball Shoe Market was estimated at USD 2,567 million in 2022 and it is projected to reach USD 3,538 million by 2032”. This explains the increase in shoe prices in the basketball industry. When someone joins the sport it is important to get good shoes because they affect the way that one performs. With so many models of shoes that vary in price, deciding which one to choose has become very complicated. In here we will scrape data from a website called “The Hoops Geek” that has collected data from multiple different basketball shoes. From there, we will analyze it to see if we can find something that characterizes the best shoes to play basketball.
Rows: 160 Columns: 10
── Column specification ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Delimiter: ","
chr (4): name, comment, price_group, brand
dbl (5): rating, price, comfort, traction, lightweight
date (1): dates
ℹ Use `spec()` to retrieve the full column specification for this data.
ℹ Specify the column types or set `show_col_types = FALSE` to quiet this message.
Analyzing Data
Does price affect performance
The first question that I feel everyone wants to know would be if there is a relationship between price and how well the performance is.
Interpretation: In the visualization, we can observe that the price of a shoe does have a slight effect on the ratings that the shoe receives. The cheaper the price of a shoe, the lower the rating will be on average. However, if you look through the data, the shoes that have the highest rating are not the ones that cost the most; rather, these shoes happen to be around the $75 - $100 range. The reason why this is not shown in the data is because the average shoe in that price range tends to be of lower quality. But if a consumer takes time to do research about the product that they are buying, they will be able to find affordable shoes that are better for the sport than the most expensive ones.
Does the Brand Affect Performance?
We are usually led to believe that brands like Nike or Jordan have better quality shoes than any other brands; here we are going to compare if the brand name has an effect on how well a shoe performs.
Interpretation: In the visualization, we can observe that big named brands like Jordan, Nike, Under Armour, etc. do have very high performing shoes that the website would recommend you to purchase. Having said this, they also do have some of the lowest performing shoes. Nike has a shoe that has a ranking of 9 points on the performance scale, and at the same time, they created a shoe that has a ranking of 7 points on the performance scale which is one of the lowest ratings given. There are other brands that are not as well known that even though they might not have the highest rating, the average of the shoes are much higher than any other brand having an average rating of 8.5 on the performance scale.
Does the Year the Shoe was Made Affect the Rating?
Just like car manufacturers as well as different phone and computer brands, shoe manufactures have better years than others.
Interpretation: In this visualization, we can observe that shoes in 2020 on average had a higher rating than any other year. The problem with 2020 and 2021 is that even though they had really highly rated shoes those years, they also created shoes that were not necessarily high performing. In regard to 2023, shoes were rated as high as previous years, but if you buy a random shoe, the probability of obtaining a good performing one is much higher than any other year.
Does Either Comfort, Traction, or Weight Affect the Rating?
When we use shoes on an athletic court, there are many things that affect our experience with the shoe. The most common things that one hears when talking about a shoe is the weight, the traction, and the comfort. In the following visualization, we will observe which attributes have an impact on the rating of the shoe.
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Interpretation: Looking at the first table, we are analyzing if comfort has an impact on the overall rating. We can observe that since when a shoe is more comfortable, it tends to have a higher rating. In second table, we see the impact that traction has on a shoe’s rating. Through this, we can observe that when a shoe has better traction, the shoe tends to be ranked higher. In the third and final table, we see the impact of weight on a shoe. We can observe that when a shoe is lighter, it tends to have a bad rating when compared to a shoe that is heavier.
Conclusion
If one wants to purchase a high performing shoe, the moral of the story is to do one’s research. As we have seen before, there is much more to look at than the price tag and brand. Rather, key factors mentioned above (i.e. comfort, traction, weight, year, etc.) play a major role in the process of selecting the highest performing product.
