Geek Locker Roundup #24
November 29th, 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, I published a Holiday Gift Guide meets Things I Own article. It was fun to reflect on outdoor gear that has stood the test of time, that I’d recommend to others. The list highlights gear from headphones to bike racks, and some products in between. If you’re looking around for gift ideas or looking to upgrade your own gear for the 2025 season, I recommend you give it a quick review!
Good Gear (2024 Edition)
Every year brings new hobbies, outdoor activities, and perhaps most importantly for a sports tech geek like me, new gear. I have a real disease where I’m unable to pass by a single outdoor gear sale without seeing what’s available, even if I don’t need anything (my wife and I call it “mothing” around a store). Despite this affliction, I was taking stock…
Next week, I’ll be creating a breakdown of the extremely wide range of publicly-traded sports companies. A surprising amount of sports gear companies have now been rolled into massive conglomerates like Amer Sports and Wolverine Worldwide, but others like the WWE and Churchill Downs (Kentucky Derby host) stick out as pretty unique public companies. I’ll also talk about the impending possibility that an individual professional sports team becomes a publicly-traded entity, and what that might mean for sports leagues worldwide— it might end up being quite a complex article!
Stat of the Week
The 2024 League of Legends (“League”) World Championship wrapped up at the start of November, and Riot Games crushed the previous viewership records. If there was any doubts that League is the most dominant esport in the world or that esports have staying power, I think both have now been assuaged (at least at the highest level, it’s still a struggle for smaller games).
Preliminary viewership numbers are starting to be revealed, and it seems the World Championship match reached a peak global viewership of ~50 Million. This figure was dominated by the Chinese audience, rooting for finalist Bilibili Gaming, but even outside of China, an audience of nearly 7 million was captured:
To put these numbers into context, the 2024 NBA Finals peaked at 13.3 Million viewers, and the 2024 Stanley Cup Final hit 16.3 Million viewers for Game 7. Of course, League is a much more international sport than hockey or basketball, and to punctuate the power of international games, the MLB achieved an average global viewership of 30 million across the whole World Series in 2024, driven by a huge surge in the Japanese audience. It’s wild to see an esport even compete with any of these figures, let alone outpace the international viewership of the NHL and NBA— despite recent pessimism about the trajectory of esports as a whole, this event has stood out as one reason for a return to optimism.
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
There are a lot of company updates this week, so I’ll try to keep each brief!
Women's professional volleyball startup League One Volleyball (LOVB) has received $100M in funding. Atwater Capital, Ares Management and Left Lane Capital combined to provide the funding, which increased the league’s total raise to $160M total. This is a pretty staggering amount of money, even with the rapid ascension of volleyball and women’s sports more broadly— I definitely hope it helps launch a sustainable business!
Two NBA greats have broken in the VC space. Giannis Antetokounmpo has launched his own Venture Capital firm, Build Your Legacy Ventures, and Michael Jordan has invested in the newest fundraiser for VC Courtside Ventures. We’re officially in the era where generational wealth is created so rapidly for superstar athletes that they are funneling money back into new, riskier sports investments. I am still extremely worried about a huge bubble in the sports tech industry though…
Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has launched his own esports organization, TC Esports. If this happened 3 years ago, I would have assumed it was someone trying to make a quick buck in the esports bubble, but it seems like there might actually be interest in long-term commitment to this brand!
Saucony parent company Wolverine Worldwide is opening an office in Boston. With New Balance, Converse headquarters in addition to other local offices, Boston is quickly becoming the east coast version of the sports innovation hub that is Portland, Oregon.
IBM and the UFC have partnered to further the use of AI and data analytics in the sport. UFC’s goal is to leverage IBM’s capabilities to launch its “Insight Engine” to enrich the live broadcast viewing experience. A lot of the specifics of the collaboration are yet unknown, but it’s clear the UFC is looking to capture and leverage fight and athlete data to improve its broadcasts and fan experience overall.
David Beckham is the latest sports celeb to launch their own brand, a health and wellness company IM8. Not much else to say on news like this nowadays!
Nivis Gear has officially launched its boutique online ski jacket store. It’s always great to see a new competitor in the outdoor gear space, and Nivis is clearly targeting skiers with a lot of disposable income, which is a strategy I think could pay off very well if they gain initial traction.
The Players Fund has invested in startup health optimization company OptimallyMe. The company has entered the fray of startups looking to use advanced analytics and AI to derive actionable insights from blood test and health marker data, and will no-doubt face stiff competition!
New Releases
New Releases shows off new products and features that are hitting the market.
In an extremely interesting move, Diamond Sports Group is going to start offering consumers single-game NHL and NBA streaming packages. In tandem with the news below about Chicago Sports Network, it’s clear the live sports broadcast landscape is about to change— and might become far more expensive for consumers, unfortunately.
Chicago Sports Network launched its direct-to-consumer streaming app last Friday. It will be fascinating to see if this type of local broadcast streaming service begins to take off, since it could easily stove-pipe the entire sports broadcast industry if it becomes a popular approach.
Norda has released its newest race-focused trail runner, the 005. The shoe is meant to be a training and racing trail shoes, and it honestly looks pretty sleek! I’m excited to read reviews once it’s been tested.
Garmin has released its first "large format dive computer.” This is the type of product that gets you thinking about where else this type of large-scale display can be used. The one that jumps to mind immediately for me is backcountry skiing, especially on large tours, or honestly even alpine traversing!
E-bike manufacturer Aventon is incorporating new security features into its e-bike lineup. This includes an alarm system, a GPS tracking device, and even a remote locking system that renders the bike unrideable. It’s quite a strong suite of theft deterrents that might become more ubiquitous in other bikes as well.
The National Lacrosse League (NLL) is launching a free, worldwide streaming service for all games. I personally think this is a pretty smart way to drive rapid growth of the sport, which is clearly the goal here. I don’t think this will be free in perpetuity though!
Some News
Some News shares select news stories from across the sports and design world.
Netflix's airing of the Tyson-Paul fight yielded over 60 million household views, but suffered from some sever technical issues throughout the broadcast. Despite these hiccups, Netlflix seems happy with the outcomes, and the floodgates seem fully open to major streaming competition for sports broadcasts now.
ESPN is in the process of testing an AI-powered avatar for broadcasts named "FACTS". I… don’t know how to feel about this. On one hand, it might be a cost savings for the broadcast, but I also feel like it’d be easy to pass these stats and insights to one of the existing commentators. It seems like the type of move that would ruffle a lot of feathers internally.
Sony and Disney (via ESPN and FOX) are poised to air a live, Simpson's-themed animated NFL broadcast. I’m a huge fan of these alternative animated simulcasts, especially when they’re aimed at making sports more digestible for kids. It’s a fun way to make something novel from the existing on-field product.
Adidas has inked an NIL deal with high school basketball player Kaleena Smith, continuing the acceleration of interest and money in youth sports. It’s a drum I’ll continue to beat, but I think this trend is going to yield some rocky times ahead for youth, high school, and college sports.
Beloved studio show “Inside the NBA” is set to move to ESPN and ABC under the Disney umbrella after this NBA season. Fans can now breathe a sigh of relief, as it was a bit touch and go on whether or not Turner would sell the show after they lost NBA broadcast rights.
Snowbound Expo drew large crowds to Boston, looking for the next generation of winter gear. I don’t know how I missed this, but I’m absolutely going next year. I missed the hockey stick ski poles!
Grab Bag
Grab Bag features interesting or useful sports innovation and product design resources, ranging from books and websites to individual graphics.
Just in time for ski season, Powder released its top-10 list of ski movies of all time. I was surprised that I hadn’t seen a single film on the list, which contains a mix of more traditional ski films and movies.
Under the Amer Sports umbrella, Arc'teryx continues its explosive growth, increasing revenue by 34% YoY. On the flip side, Salomon has struggled to find its footing for growth and has appointed a new CEO as it seeks to follow Arc’teryx in targeting the Chinese market.