Geek Locker
Welcome back to the Geek Locker Roundup— your bi-weekly collection of the latest sports innovation news, product releases, and design resources!
Last week was a double-dip on articles, to make up for an off week in July! The first reviewed the best (and funniest) moments of the Paris Olympics, and the second provided an overview and analysis of sports tech startup trends in the first half of 2024. It’s clear that money is continuing to flow into the sports and sports tech markets, and the distribution of tech companies receiving that investment reflects a big emphasis on media and fan engagement. Unfortunately for my own preferences, hardware- and equipment-focused companies are having a much harder time attracting funding. Despite my disappointment, I will definitely be doing a review of startup trends throughout the entire year in January!
Sports Tech Startup Trends of 2024, Part 1
Every day, it seems like more and more hype builds around sports entities as a financial growth mechanism. CNBC recently kicked off a sports-focused business channel, the NFL is considering opening team ownership to private equity (PE) funds, and companies like On and Hoka
Next week, I’ll be writing about market-level trends in the outdoor gear industry— how cost and competition may drive new business models and consumer products. I generally believe that the outdoor gear market currently has some gaps that could be filled by new entrants, or tweaks in tactics by existing companies, so I’m excited to dig into these thoughts a bit deeper.
Stat of the Week
Cincinnati Red Elly De La Cruz stole his 60th base of the season this week, and became just the 5th player since 1901 to steal 60 bases and hit 20 home runs in the same season. It’s very impressive, but what is wild is that he is the 3rd player from the Reds to accomplish the feat, meaning that the club has 3 of the 5 players to accomplish the feat. If every team has a random chance of producing these players, the odds of this are just 1-in-3000 (~0.03%)!
As always, I appreciate your engagement and please share with others who might be interested in reading about sports innovation. On to the news!
Company Cable
Company Cable highlights major and minor updates from companies around the sports innovation space.
The Real Madrid' Next (“RMNext”) Accelerator for Asia announced the selection of 7 startups for its inaugural incubation class. The startups were pulled from a group of over 800 applicants, and range from fan engagement and audio technology to athlete performance and cybersecurity. This type of team- and league-based acceleration program is becoming very popular!
Hudl has acquired analysis and tracking software company StatsBomb. Hudl, a giant in the high school and college sports video capture space, is looking to expand its offerings to provide teams and individuals with more in-depth data and analysis of their play, aiming to extend beyond its most popular use as a college recruitment platform.
An Asheville, NC duo has launched "Fuel Goods," a potential competitor to The Feed. The Feed appears to be extremely successful, so it’s not surprising that their business model may garner competition. It will be interesting to see if Fuel Goods competes directly, or tries to initially target sports nutrition categories outside of the Feed’s core product!
Avenue Sports Fund has become a minority owner in Premier League team Ipswich. It seems like there’s nothing more popular for PE funds than buying professional soccer teams, and this news does nothing to slow that perception. Maybe some day the state of Massachussetts will be majority owners of a team through our sate pension plan and we get to vote on who to transfer!
Genius Sports has signed a deal with ESPN to provide in-game data analysis and insights, initially targeting the NBA, WNBA, and NCAA basketball. It seems like the goal is to provide TV audiences with more real-time and in-game data, similar to Next Gen Stats in the NFL on Amazon Prime. I sit pretty firmly on the fence as to whether or not these types of insights and visuals actually enhance the viewing experience for fans, but ESPN must have troves of user data that show it does.
New Releases
New Releases shows off new products and features that are hitting the market.
A new "smart ring," the RingConn Gen 2 has entered the wearables fray, challenging the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Ring and Oura Ring. It really is just a matter of time until Apple releases its own smart ring, and while I’d posit that once Apple has released theirs, subscription-based models like Oura’s will disappear, I think Whoop and Oura itself have proven they might be around to stay (unfortunately).
Wilson has launched a Roger Federer-designed tennis racket, which I have to imagine looks good no matter how long or humid a match is.
The New York Mets have introduced a fan loyalty program, providing awards like memorabilia and even free tickets for fans who attend games and participate in fan engagement. I am shocked that this type of program is not more common. It seems like such low effort to increase the amount of people coming to your stadium on a weekly basis!
Trek launched a new gravel racing bike, the 2025 Checkmate. Unfortunately I think I will have to wait for the 2046 Checkmate to afford the cost and space of a high-end gravel bike.
Sony has launched a digital fandom platform for Manchester City called "FavoriteSpace". It features a virtual Etihad stadium, complete with facility tours, player interactions, and fan activities. Everyone gets their own customizable virtual avatar that looks a lot like the old Xbox 360 avatars (RIP).
La Liga has launched a North-American exclusive online fan club. Similar to the New York Mets fan loyalty program, this type of fan engagement— providing tangible incentives to engage a team or league— seems like a no-brainer. For La Liga, a big challenge will be getting the word around that this exists in the US market though.
Some News
Some News shares select news stories from across the sports and design world.
Roku is delving deeper into the sports streaming fray by launching its FAST premium sports channel. I feel like we’ve seen many cycles of a company launching a streaming service only to fail at capturing enough views and revenues to keep it running without a merger, but clearly Roku sees value in becoming a bigger player in the streaming space.
The legal battle between Fanatics and wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. continues to build. The NFL rookie claims that while his company signed a deal with Fanatics, he himself did not, so he has no obligation to make appearances and endorsements on behalf of Fanatics. I would have to imagine that he would be breaching his contract with his own company by refusing to make the appearances, but who knows! It will be interesting to watch it unfold.
The Paris Olympics organizing committee has been busy working to repurpose the infrastructure from the games. In general, I am skeptical of plans to re-use venues and infrastructure from large events like the Olympics, but the organizers claim that they have concrete re-use pathways for nearly all materials used to host the games. I hope they are being truthful and can execute their plans well!
Studies and news reports about Ketones increasing EPO presence in blood are beginning to circulate regularly. We’re treading into very dangerous territory with these types of findings, and I do expect that Ketones will come under greater scrutiny by anti-doping agencies.
Genius Sports will power the Premier League's new offside technology, and if it’s anything like other offside tech in soccer, it will not be popular with the public.
A federal judge has blocked the launch of Venu Sports, citing antitrust laws. On one hand, this was not unexpected— three of the largest sports entertainment companies were seeking to combine forces in a single product. On the other hand, it is a major move that almost certainly throws a major wrench in the plans of ESPN, WB, and Fox. There is no clear timeline on next steps and a resolution here, and the ruling puts the phrase “Disney is a law firm that makes movies” to the test.
Backcountry ski brand G3 has had its assets siezed by Deloitte. It’s an unfortunate development for the specialized ski brand as the entity will likely go under if its financial state is non-recoverable.
Saudi Arabia has made an investment in CONCACAF to establish a “partnership.” The deals of the agreement are opaque, but seem to effectively be an investment being paid back with good press for the country. The investment is clearly timed to seize upon the upcoming World Cup being hosted across North America in 2026.
Grab Bag
Grab Bag features interesting or useful sports innovation and product design resources, ranging from books and websites to individual graphics.
Industrial design student Robin Luginbühl showed off some dis-assemblable, modular shoes. I love the concept of running shoes that are actively customizable and have replaceable components after purchase, and I hope this will spark some creative investigations down these paths at large sport gear companies.
IEEE Spectrum published a long product design review of the first FitBit. If you want a trip down memory lane, or see how a major linchpin of the fitness wearables industry made decisions, I highly recommend giving it a read!
The National Law Review published its 4th article in a series highlighting key patents in the world of sports. This edition showed off inventions from past Olympians, in honor of the Paris games!