Giving Your Wallet a Workout

High-tech inventors offer a new crop of elaborate -- and expensive -- gear

For those with anything left to spend after the holiday excesses, what better causes to spend it on than sport and fitness? Every year, the American desire to wed high-tech creativity with recreational activity grows more intense -- and the resulting gizmos grow more intriguing and elaborate. No innovation is safe from rethinking: last year's air-filled running shoe, for example, is now competing against a new computer-designed number from Puma that needs no laces, straps or Velcro fasteners. The Puma Disc tightens by means of an invisible system: a turn of the dial on the shoe's tongue compresses connecting sleeves around...

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