Geek Locker Roundup #28
January 10th, 2025
Geek Locker
Welcome back to the Geek Locker Roundup— your bi-weekly collection of the latest sports innovation news, product releases, and design resources!
It’s the start of 2025, so as promised you’ll start seeing some additional content in the form of short “Recess” articles that cover a specific news or technical topic. They’re meant to be informative, entertaining, and above all else, a quick read! The inaugural Recess #1 covers how local positioning systems (LPS) work, and what they’re used for in team sports. I think it’s very likely to be the longest and most serious Recess article of the year!
In addition, we rounded out the overview of publicly-traded sports companies by taking a deep dive on professional teams. It was extremely fun to try to figure out why privately-held sports team valuations haven’t matched most publicly-traded teams in the last decade, and what the future for pro sports teams in popular leagues might look like. I think it’s very likely that I’ll write an article in the future about how publicly-traded team performance correlates to stock performance on a short-term basis!
Next week I’ll be providing a look back on the trends in sports tech funding events and startup launches through the second half of 2024. This will build on the article covering the first half of the year, though (spoilers!), the second half of the year was a little bit quieter. I think this will likely be an annual or semi-annual article series moving forward since it’s a great refresher on the major new companies and products that launched!
Stat of the Week
Belgian Hilde Dosogne established a new World Record by becoming the first woman to complete a marathon every day in a year. Because 2024 was a leap year, she ran 366 marathons in the calendar year, tallying over 9,500 miles of running. She more than doubled the previous women’s record for most consecutive days running a marathon at 150, and what’s perhaps most astonishing is that she took this record at age 55 while working a job and raising four kids— it certainly puts me to shame. My main question is: will she every run a marathon again? (I know I wouldn’t)
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
Updates about major sports tech company transactions.
In absence of major company transactions over the holidays (and an email malfunction preventing news receipt), Company Cable is the first category to lack any new inclusions in a Roundup! However, I did want to share this interesting breakdown of Shaq’s business empire created by Front Office Sports. It’s quite insane how many businesses he’s invested in, and how much time he dedicates to each.
New Releases
New sports products and major features that are hitting the market.
Circular has revealed the Circular Ring 2, a major competitor to the Aura Ring. The biggest selling point of the Circular Ring product line might be its financial model (especially because their first ring didn’t get the best reviews), In contrast to Aura and competitors like WHOOP who are leaning into subscription-based pricing, the ring is available at a one-time sale price of $380. I’m glad both models exist to help drive competition!
DraftKings has launched a subscription service that enables users to receive better odds on specific parlay bets. To me, this move is one part fascinating, one part moral quandary. It’s clearly a result of desiring more stable, regular income from the most involved customers, but I definitely fear that this model will spread to include odds improvements for all types of bets. I think this could be a slippery slope for the people most exposed to gambling addiction, and ironically alienate a lot of more causal users if it becomes ubiquitous across sports gambling.
amp Fitness is set to launch its at-home AI-based workout machine later this January. Despite some celebrity endorsements, great marketing, and high initial praise, I am very skeptical that this product will be able to stand out from the crowd of those that have tried and failed. However, I could be very wrong!
Ski brand Armada has launched its own ski boot, the AR ONE. I wrote a long while ago about how every outdoor gear brand makes every type of product now because it’s easier than ever before, and keeps folks in your ecosystem. That still seems to be true, especially for these more expensive items like ski boots that benefit less from economics of scale, or simple apparel and travel items that are cheap to design!
This week, Apple Fitness+ launched its newest suite of exercise class product features for 2025. Apple’s drive into the health, fitness, and sport industries shows no signs of slowing down. I am extremely interested to see how their next Apple Watch Ultra stacks up against the competition since it might be their most important fitness product for enthusiasts to release in the near future.
Some News
Select news stories from across the sports and design world.
Live sports events once again dominated the top US broadcasts lists for 2024. More specifically, the NFL continued to control the airwaves, accounting for 72 of the top 100 broadcasts in 2024! Typically, the NFL and sports as a whole control more of the top 100 broadcasts, but the presidential election cycle in the US stole a few of the top spots. It’s easy to forget how pervasive and magnetic watching sports can be.
The NCAA seems to be toying with the prospect of permanently extending athlete eligibility to five years. This decision is being weighed on the back of lawsuits against the NCAA and the expiration of COVID-based eligibility extensions. To me, this move would be unsurprising given how the NCAA is slowly being converted into a professional sports organization, and it will be interesting to see whether or not it happens.
Angry ski tourists nearly singlehandedly drew down Vail Resorts' stock last week. Ski Patrollers at Park City, Utah have been on strike for some time, which soured many tourists plans over the holidays with extended lift lines and closed portions of the mountain. Vail Resorts is down nearly 50% from its peak value in 2021 as COVID restrictions eased.
The quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff averaged nearly 17M views. See the note above about sports capturing the most attention on TV! This is likely welcome news for the College Football association whose experiment with a 12-team playoff initially received criticism due to a lack of competitiveness in the first round.
Grab Bag
Interesting or useful sports innovation and product design resources, ranging from books and websites to individual graphics.
Bartosz Chienowski published a deep dive on the entire physics of riding a bicycle on his website. It starts with the most basic physics and mechanics and it’s extremely fun to read and take in the beautiful graphics. 10/10 would recommend for a morning read, even if you don’t think you know anything about math or physics!
Football players across the NFL cashed in major bonuses and incentives in the final week of the season. Player bonuses are such an interesting piece of salary negotiations, and I haven’t really formed an opinion about whether or not they are good as a whole. One question related to last week’s article I do find fascinating is: would they be as common if all teams were public companies?