Inspiring Sports Technology
Bryan Roberts
Highlights ISPO Munich 2012 – Always about the ISPO BRAND NEW AWARD
Monday, February 13th, 2012
It was my 4th year at ISPO Munich and I must say that it is definitely the place to be if you are in the sporting goods industry. Although the focus is always snowsports, it is great to see such a variety of ideas, concepts and brands popping up every year. For me, the most exciting part is talking to the new brands who were awarded prizes in the ISPO Brand New award. This year the judges chose 50 new brands to showcase, all with great novel ideas. For me the highlights were Douchebags.com, Dual Snowboard, Smovetec, Rebreather and 4iiis. Each of these brands had great people behind them, and I look forward to future articles with interviews of the owners.
Again, there were a plethora of “barefoot” shoe brands. Unfortunately none hit the mark for me, the same concepts were recycled time and time again – ones that have been developed by “experts” but little substance when questioned. There is a lot of room in the market for barefoot brands, but its time to be innovative and different. Another disappointing product was a new football boot claiming increased speed because of a new stud configuration. If this is true then they are magicians, but when questioned there was no evidence behind the claims. Also, the mechanism which was described to me as being the reason for the increase in propulsion was also misguided. However, I will gladly apologise should this research come to fruition.
Onto, the big brands. A great showing – almost all had a large stand which promoted integration with the crowds, many of the staff were glad to talk to the consumers, and new innovations were showcased beautifully with clear marketing messages. Believe me it is fun playing with new toys and gadgets that are aimed at improving sports.
Sourcing is another interesting area. I spent around 5 hours trawling through factory stands from China, India, Taiwan, Pakistan and much more. I am always pleased by how friendly, open and honest they all are. We have so much to learn from the Asian manufacturers. In the factories I visited on this trip, they were more than helpful even to the point of wanting to travel over to the UK just to talk about business.
Finally, the most exhilarating part is always the new sports shown around the peripheries of the halls. This year the major talking point was the inaugural URBANLINING open. A mixture between tight-rope walking, trampolining and gymnastics. This sport is crazy but, becoming popular, being shown at half-time in Madonna’s show during the SuperBowl. Unfortunately, there wasn’t time to wait around to see the eventual winner, but whoever they are, they are extreme in my mind.
Love ISPO, just wish there could be an alternative for less extreme sports. Looking forward to next year already,
Article by Bryan Roberts
Suitpack rucksack design provides crease-free solution to cycle-commuting
Friday, January 27th, 2012
Cambridge Design Partnership’s innovative design allows commuters to keep fit and look smart
The practice of cycling to work, whether for convenience or keep-fit, has risen sharply in recent years: Yet cycling is still impractical for many people who need to dress smart for their job. Commuters wanting to cycle often have to sacrifice either a sharp look or exercise in their struggle to find convenient ways to cycle to work and look slick. Cambridge Design Partnership today announces an innovative solution to this problem.
Suitpack is a prototype of a compact rucksack that, with an innovative yet simple patented roll-fold concept, combines convenience with a crease-free solution for clothes. It is designed to hang easily from locations wherever required allowing easy-access to the clothes, toiletry and shoe compartments. The Suitpack has been designed for speed of use with its novel folding system making it an all-round solution for the modern commuter.
Increased commuting time and the ever more common practice of working long hours often mean that there is little time outside of work to dedicate to exercise. The convenience of cycling as a form of exercise, the popularity of various government cycling initiatives, and financial and environmental concerns, have all resulted in a significant net increase in cycle-commuting. 1.3 million new UK cyclists joined the roads last year, there are now 783,000 cycle commuters and the increase in cycling levels is predicted to continue to grow another 20% by 2015.
Furthermore, cyclists clearly enjoy spending on their passion1: The bicycle market in the UK was worth £1.62 billion in 2010, (up 28% on the previous year), with the accessories market worth £853 million. The average cycle commuter spends, on average, £195/year, and ‘enthusiasts’ a whopping £1295/year, on accessories. And that’s just the UK market; the EU cycle market is 10 times the UK’s with 4 million frequent commuter cyclists.
As part of their ethos to think differently, Cambridge Design Partnership has ventured into new capabilities by combining their traditional engineering and innovation skills with ‘cut and stitch’ design. This is another example of flexibility and versatility in applying innovation to diverse market opportunities and technology areas with the ability to gather rich, in-depth research to discover unmet consumer needs and tackle them with creative solutions.
“We know the challenges faced by anyone who has to pack smart clothes for the journey to work,” commented Ben Strutt, Head of Design at Cambridge Design Partnership. “Most people who go to the gym early, cycle or jog to work, and commute regularly in ‘practical’ clothes understand the need to change into smart attire upon arrival. This can be annoyingly impractical: Current poor solutions result in disruption to personal routine; lack of exercise, or commuting via different methods. There is also the issue of office changing facilities which tend to be cramped, impersonal, with floors too wet to put clothes on.
“Very often the trick of good design is not to reinvent the wheel; but to identify and understand problems, give a fresh perspective, and address a burning gap in the market. Here, Cambridge Design Partnership has provided an innovative, graceful solution to what is, for many people, an everyday problem, and which addresses a huge market need.”
It’s not just cyclists who will benefit from Suitpack. Many commuters wish to go to the gym before or after work, or during their lunch break, and Suitpack also fits within the dimensions of ‘hand luggage’ allowed by European airports and in railway ceiling racks, allowing business commuters to travel in comfortable clothes with all of the convenience of the backpack form-factor. Also despite its compact size there is still space for a laptop and important daily accessories.
Graeme Henderson, business commuter and partner in the project, says: “Life in the city can be fast and days in the office are often long, so many people find they don’t have time to go to the gym or play any sport. Commuting by bike solves this problem by incorporating exercise into your daily routine, so a healthy lifestyle and a busy job are no longer incompatible. But the problem of what to wear means the only options seem to be turning up with crumpled trousers, keeping your wardrobe under your desk or taking transport and exercising later. The Suitpack is a smart solution to all this.”
CDP’s Head of Design continues “Cambridge Design Partnership’s most recent demonstrator has evolved during the application of our usual iterative design process; with rapid experimentation and critiquing of successive models and prototypes we quickly learn about problems and opportunities, while refining the design for cost and labour effective manufacture.”
Cambridge Design Partnership is now interested in speaking with potential partners about the future branding and development of the Suitpack backpack, or its core innovations into other luggage designs, and on to the manufacture and distribution phase.
1 Dr Alexander Grous; ‘The British Cycling Economy: (http://corporate.sky.com/documents/pdf/publications/the_british_cycling_economy)
Babolat play and connect – data from your tennis racket
Wednesday, January 25th, 2012
Babolat announced last week that they are developing a tennis racket, prototype to be shown first at the Roland Garros, that will store data about your swing and “flow”. They released very little else about its capabilities, but Eric Babolat, CEO, commented:
“Innovation is only valuable if it advances the game of tennis to the benefit of the greatest number of people, in 1875, Babolat invented the first strings for tennis racquets. More than 135 years of innovation and progress later, I am proud to present today our vision of the tennis of tomorrow, brought by our Play & Connect racquet.”
The planned launch date is 2013, so hopefully we will hear more about it then, but if the sensors integrated are similar to accelerometers then we can expect positional, velocity and acceleration data of the racket during use. It will be interesting to see how they separate a stroke with general play (probably through the accelerations and velocity), how they average the data over a particular stroke (so will it tell us the speed of a forehand smash, baseline shot, dropshot?), how the data will be presented to the public in a meaningful way (is it better to hit it faster? I doubt it because the racket would need to go at a specific speed to hit the baseline, any faster and it would overshoot) and how this will affect performance characteristics such as weight, vibration, sound and so on. Sensors will soon be in every sports product we use, but the hardest part is making sense of the data which is extracted. Sometimes position, power and speed are not necessarily the key parameters to look for. Understanding Babolat’s vision for the “flow of data” is intriguing and I am interested as to the market – competition or training. Would people buy a training racket? I don’t know but looking forward to finding out.
Article by Bryan Roberts
Cutting Edge 2012: The Research Behind Sport – Lecture series
Monday, January 23rd, 2012
The Royal Institution of Science are hosting a great series of lectures across the UK investigating cutting edge design, technology and science in sport. Many of my colleagues are presenting and this should be an inspirational series of lectures that delve into the depths of sports technology, science and engineering. Best of all – they are all FREE!!! The list of lecture titles and where they are being held are below:
Cutting Edge 2012: Behind Basketball
Wednesday 25 January 7.00pm – 8.30pm
The Royal Institution, London
Cutting Edge 2012: Behind Triathlon
Tuesday 27 March 7.00pm – 8.30pm
Carriageworks, Leeds
Cutting Edge 2012: Behind Athletics
Thursday 26 April 7.00pm – 8.30pm
English Institute of Sport, Sheffield
Cutting Edge 2012: Behind Diving
Thursday 5 July 7.00pm – 8.30pm
Plymouth Life Centre, Plymouth
Cutting Edge 2012: Behind Sailing
May, TBC
Weymouth Sailing Academy, Weymouth
Cutting Edge 2012: Behind Cycling
Thursday 19 July 7.00pm – 8.30pm
The Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, Glasgow
For more information please visit the Royal Institution of Great Britain website.
Article by Bryan Roberts
Nike Vapor Flash Reflective Jacket – inspiration!
Monday, January 23rd, 2012
Over the past couple of years, the team at Progressive Sports Technologies have been investigating running clothing reflectivity. It is a very new field to sports companies and one that has had little research or development. Indeed the team have developed many novel ways to assess reflectivity, contrast, and fabric brightness. In a survey of current night-time running jackets, there were a few brands who have delivered adequate solutions, but still consumers are frustrated by the need for the bright colours (yellow, orange, green) and silver 3M bands that are not very attractive in the daylight, nor are they very aesthetically pleasing. However, to me, Nike have created a fantastic solution, particularly if the developments of this fabric stem into different colourways to provide contrast in different environments. The Nike Vapor Flash running jacket appears matte in the daylight, but reflective at night! Of course, this would have little effect when there is no light present such as in the countryside at night, but for urban running this could be the optimum solution. Although we haven’t been able to get one in person, it appears to be a novel fabric using 3M reflective spheres. Much better and more attractive that the typical bands we see at the minute. Great job Nike – a truly unique innovation in this market!
Article by Bryan Roberts
