Geek Locker Roundup #22
November 1st, 2024
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, after some false starts in publishing, I shared an article about how thinking about something in the extremes is an easy way to see if it matters. Does a running back affect the outcomes of NFL games? Does the color of construction equipment affect sales? These types of questions are extremely easy to answer by thinking about the underlying variables at their extreme values, but what’s much more difficult is to figure out how much something matters. I talked a bit about how to derive quick-and-dirty insights on this front, but for most nuanced discussions, much more data is required! This isn’t about that minutiae though, it’s about arming you with a tool to super quickly assess the potential impact of a decision or assessment input!
Thinking in Extremes Is The Easy Part
Note from the author: For some reason I was having difficulty publishing this article, so I apologize if you received 5 copies of it in the last 24 hours! This is the final version you will receive even if this final attempt doesn’t work.
Next week, I’ll be writing about the meteoric rise of Pickleball, how it compares to previous sports popularity explosions, and what its success tells us about the “next Pickleball.” It will extremely fun to try to figure out what actually makes Pickleball so appealing, and how these qualities may be translated to future sports yet to be invented. I’m also excited to co-author this article, in a first for the Geek Locker. Also stay tuned for a short rundown on sports gear that I use and endorse sometime in the the next few weeks— somewhat of a way-too-early holiday gift guide that includes products not available since 2016…
Stat of the Week
Earlier this year, mountain running legend (and possible GOAT) Killian Jornet summited 82 of Europe’s 4,000 meter peaks in just 19 days. During that time, he traversed over ~750 miles of terrain, with a total elevation gain of 237,000 ft! Killian was outfitted with a large biometric sensor suite and underwent constant physical and mental evaluations throughout the nearly 3-week effort, and more information about his performance is starting to become public. I expect that more mind-blowing facts and figures will continue to surface, but recent Coros blogs and Killian’s site have already shared some jaw-dropping stats (beyond his conquering of so much terrain):
Over the 19 days, Killian averaged only 5.25 hours of sleep per night
His total “training load” for each week of the endeavor was ~10 times higher than the average professional marathon runner
The longest continuous effort spanned over 32 hours straight, covering over 100km and 8,000 meters of climbing
On average, he burned 8,300 calories per day, and consumed primarily whole foods, with very few endurance specific energy gels/bites
Somehow, Killian didn’t lose any weight over the effort— starting and finishing at a weight of 54kg
The second, potentially more important “stat” of the week comes from the world of mathematics— a new largest known prime number has been discovered! It is a Mersenne Prime (2136,279,841 – 1), and contains over 40 million digits, which is absolutely wild. The discoverer Luke Durant will receive a $3,000 prize, though a $100k prize awaits the first person to discover a prime with more than 100 million digits, and a $250k prize for the first prime of over 1 billion digits. It’s been 6 years since the last largest known prime number was discovered, though the pace of discovery is erratic, so who knows how long until the next is found!
Sports innovation news flooded my inbox last week while I was on vacation, so I’ll keep the headlines brief. Let’s dive in!
Company Cable
Company Cable highlights major company events around the sports world.
The Athletic has established its first broadcast partnership, with FuboTV. Apart from Fubo being featured heavily on The Athletic’s site, it’s not quite clear yet what content this partnership will generate.
Golf-centric E-bike startup Fairway Bikes has raised a $1.25M Seed Round. Honestly, I think this is a pretty great idea— I hope they can use the Seed to scale up manufacturing and distribution!
Soccer scouting and recruiting startup Eyeball Club has raised a ~$5M Seed Round, less than a year after its pre-seed funding. The company is looking to expand to North America and its insights in youth sports.
RedBird Capital Partners has acquired a majority stake in Front Office Sports, continuing the flood of private equity into sports technology and media ventures.
LeagueApps finalized a new funding round with Accel-KKR and Arctos for an undisclosed amount. LeagueApps helps organize youth and amateur leagues and teams, and as with Eyeball Club, is a recipient of the flood of capital into youth sports— for better or worse.
Group One Holdings has received $50M in funding to expand its combat sports promotion arm, ONE Championship. The Qatar national investment fund participated in the fundraise, expanding combat sport involvement in the Middle East.
Startup Calorify has raised an additional $500k in Pre-seed funding. This bridge funding round will be used to help the brand scale up its operations with customers, including professional cycling and NBA teams.
The Women's National Football Conference (WNFC) has closed a $1M funding round. This concludes the single largest funding event for the company since its launch in 2018, as the league looks to expand in viewership and revenue with its existing 17 teams, but is open for separate investment to expand to 20 teams nationwide.
Sony has acquired the biomechanics and players tracking company KinaTrax. Sony seeks to pair KinaTrax with its Hawkeye technology to enhance its live-sporting event tracking suite.
TPG Capital is reportedly set to raise a sports-focused private equity fund. I would imagine many other PE and VC funds will seek to raise sport-specific investment vehicles in the years to come, but I do wonder if companies starting now are too late to the game…
The Texas Permanent School Fund Corporation (PSF) invested $200M into the sports-focused PE Fund Velocity. The amount of public pension money being shuttled into sports investments is simultaneously exciting and nerve-wracking. I can’t help but feel we’re mere years away from a publicly traded professional sports team.
easyJet has a new sister brand— a sports betting company called EasyBet. Not the pairing I would have expected, but maybe Easy is the new Virgin— a brand that is ubiquitous across all sectors.
New Releases
New Releases shows off new products and features that are hitting the market.
Mooncool has released a new electric tricycle, and it even folds! I actually like this utility-focused bike a lot, but I can’t imagine trying to fold and haul it on a daily basis.
The NHL and Fanatics partnered with LuluLemon to create a custom set of team apparel. I actually think this is a very smart move (and may try to snag some Bruins gear), but I find it weird they are only rolling out 11 teams’ apparel this season, and have very limited in-person and online shopping access, mainly through LIDS, not LuluLemon…
Decades-old ski company LINE has just released its first snowboard ahead of the 2024/5 winter season. This is nearly as big a surprise as a company like Burton making skis, but it’s exciting to see!
Rossignol claims to have designed a ski boot that can be taken on and off without needing your hands. Finally, the days of wrenching your foot in and out of your plastic ski boot might be over! These boots do look extremely comfortable, and I am curious to see if they actually can live up to their ease-of-use promise.
Gatorade has launched a generative AI tool that allows customers to customize a personal squeeze bottle. I’m not sure how much use this offering will get, but at least they are leaning further into customization.
The PGA has launched its first official golf courses in India. It’s clear that the major governing bodies of golf are looking to make it a globally-accessible sport, potentially an uphill battle, but one worth fighting given the amount of investment poured into the sport since 2020.
Wahoo's next bike computer with a built-in wind sensor has leaked online. The trend of bike computers becoming larger and laden with more features continues!
Some News
Some News shares select news stories from across the sports and design world.
The Tampa Bay Lightning owner John Romano has sold his majority stake in the team and has pledged to give bonuses totaling $20M to all employees. It’s an extremely heartwarming story, and the general consensus is that the NHL lost one of its best owners.
Nike has agreed to a 12-year contract extension of its exclusive NBA uniform deal. Now that the NBA has other sponsors on team jerseys, I wonder if this new deal was cheaper for Nike compared to past contracts.
Puma has officially launched its first global basketball-centric advertising and marketing campaign. Basketball appears to be on a meteoric international rise, and while Puma might be late to the party, they still want to attend.
The LA Rams have teamed up with Genius Sports to bring next-gen stats and highlights into SoFi stadium. SoFi continues to stay on the bleeding edge of modern technology and media.
The battle over legalization of sports gambling has made its way to Missouri. Death, taxes, and trying to justify sports gambling based on increased revenue for schools that won’t meet expectations.
DirecTV has partnered with Urban Edge Network to broadcast and promote sports in the HBCU Athletic Conference, G-League, and more.
NBA owners are reportedly displeased with the lack of transparency surrounding WNBA financials. I did not know it, but the NBA owns ~60% of the WNBA— so hopefully any short-term unhappiness will subside as the league continues to grow in popularity!
TNT reportedly wants to turn TruTV into the next big sports network. With TNT losing the media rights to NBA broadcasts, and compensating with additional college basketball, this might be a bit of a struggle for the network in the short term.
Grab Bag
Grab Bag features interesting or useful sports innovation and product design resources, ranging from books and websites to individual graphics.
Gear Patrol posted a general takedown of hybrid/3-in-1 winter jackets. As someone who has used a 2-in-1 Patagonia Snowshot jacket for many years, I think some of the criticisms are a bit overblown, especially if you are looking for a cost-effective high-quality jacket. With that said though, nothing beats a good individual layering system!
Poynter published a deep dive into Sellout Crowd, a once-lauded potential competitor of The Athletic and ESPN. It’s fascinating to read about the rapid rise and fall of a periodical.
Startup Daily highlighted 8 women-led startups appearing at this year's Australian Sports Innovation week. There are some super cool companies on the list!