Load ‘N Launch™ is the patented technology that Athletic Propulsion Labs (APL) first developed for their basketball shoes and later used in their new running shoes.
A January 2013 press release from APL described the Load ‘N Launch™ technology as:
The forefoot is the most critical part of the basketball shoe for vertical leaping and this is where the Athletic Propulsion Labs™ Load ‘N Launch™ technology is located. The patented Load ‘N Launch technology combines two hinged plates with a nest housed between the upper and lower plates that contains several compression springs. This patented feature serves as a “spring loaded launch pad” housed inside a cavity at the front of the shoe, which compresses (The “Load” phase) and then releases (The “Launch” phase) as the athlete exerts force on the front of the foot.
APL claim that there are performance advantages from the technology:
In testing situations, athletes have experienced increases of several inches on their vertical leap wearing Athletic Propulsion Labs™ basketball shoes with the Load ‘N Launch™ technology.
According to the press release, the technology is covered by this patent. The patent describes the technology as:
A shoe includes a first plate and a second plate that are located in a forefoot portion of the shoe between an upper and an outsole of the shoe, and one or more springs for biasing the first plate and the second plate apart from each other. A device for a shoe includes a first plate and a second plate that are installable in a forefoot portion of the shoe, and an energy return member positioned between the first plate and the second plate. A method of using a shoe includes applying, with a foot, a force on at least one of two plates that is positioned in a forefoot portion of a shoe, so as to move the two plates together and increase a loading of a spring, and launching the foot due to the two plates being moved apart by the spring as the foot is being lifted.
Diagram of spring mechanism from patent
The company claims that the NBA has banned the shoe, but this is difficult to verify. Under NBA rules a product is not permitted if the footwear was designed to give a competitive advantage. The NBA stated in a New York Times article:
The league said it notified the company last week that the shoes would not be permitted.
“No player has asked to wear these shoes, so it’s a nonissue,” the N.B.A. spokeswoman Kristin Conte said. “However, we determined that they don’t conform to our rules, based on the company’s representation of what they do.”
The press release put out by the company on the NBA ‘ban’ went viral and lead to substantial publicity and sales for APL. The performance claims are difficult to verify as this was never published and the only data is the graph produced by the company: 
No mean differences where reported and it appears that not all basketball players had an increase in jump height and most seem to have on a small increase. A couple appear to have increases of a few inches; hence APL’s claims of up to several inches.
Related Topics:
Athletic Propulsion Lab Basketball Shoes | Athletic Propulsion Lab Running Shoes
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