Geek Locker Roundup #29
January 24th, 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!
Last week, I wrote about two of the more unrelated topics you can possibly cover in the world of sports: the sports tech startup investment and launch trends from 2024, and how much distance you can feasibly cover in a full day of skiing. Both are great reads, though one leans slightly more informative, while the other is a bit more tongue-in-cheek. I’ll leave it up to you to decide which is which!
Next week, I’ll be writing about how rule changes in sports lead to changes in the “meta”: the most prevalent strategy used by teams across a given league (not the tech giant). Major structural rule changes are most common in esports, so we’ll use League of Legends as the through line for the article to draw comparisons with more traditional sports. I’m excited to cover how changes can yield more exciting games, especially for sports like basketball and baseball (where the MLB is apparently not committed to making the game more fun). Stay tuned for periodic “Recess” articles too!
Stat of the Week
The UCI (pro cycling’s main governing body) has released stats for the crashes and safety of professional cycling in 2024. Safety has been a top priority for cycling governance in the past few years as the sport becomes faster and more dangerous, with tragic deaths of cyclists either during races or training occurring for multiple years now. In 2024, the UCI determined that 35% of crashes were due to “unprovoked rider error,” which might be one of the least useful stats I’ve seen in a while. In fact, it begs more questions than it answers when provided in a vacuum. Does that mean that 65% of crashed were provoked rider error? Or 65% were not rider error at all?
It’s not made entirely clear in the initial reports, which has garnered some consternation from other reporting bodies. Perhaps some data is better than no data in this case, but I struggle to see the value in releasing half-realized insights when the data itself has not yet been made public. If I was in charge of publicizing rider safety information, the last thing I would want is for teams, riders, and fans (like myself) trying to draw conclusions on their own.
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!
Scrum Ventures has finalized a new $68M sports technology fund. Scrum already has a background investing in sports technology startups through other funds, so it’s interesting to see a sports-specific fund be launched to further meet the demand of investors.
Shaun White's The Snow League has finalized a $15M funding round, as its inaugural season gets kicked into gear. I don’t know if any financial due diligence docs will ever be released from this fundraise, but I would love to know the economics of comparable example companies like the Dew Tour and X-Games that have operated for multiple decades now.
General Manager software suite startup Dropback has finalized an initial $1.6M funding round. Dropback is focused on college football as a beachhead market, looking to seize on the rising complexity of navigating what is effectively a free agent market with player salaries now! I think it’s a great starting point with likely high demand for their product.
Tennis Australia has closed its first sports tech focused VC fund at $30M to be funneled into AO Ventures. I imagine most of the fund’s focus will be on boosting the burgeoning Australian and New Zealand sports tech scene, but I would not be surprised if their investments go international.
Indian digital sports ecosystem startup Kibi Sports has receive $100k in angel funding. Kibi’s platforms span a range of functions from connecting athletes to sponsors in a digital marketplace to an event booking software. They are certainly shooting for the moon to become a one-stop-shop for sports infrastructure in India.
New licensed NFL gear brand Off Season has launched. Off Season’s primary focus is on pretty loud jersey-style winter coats, with more puffy coat options than Bill Belichick has worn in his entire life.
Swedish company Craft is launching their team gear collections in the US for the first time. If you’re the coach of a Nordic skiing or cross country running team, keep your eyes peeled for initial team discounts!
Varsity Sports is branching out to launch its own lifestyle brand, Varsity. If Lululemon and Vuori can do it, what’s stopping Varsity Sports?
New Releases
New Releases shows off new products and features that are hitting the market.
Garmin is launching its newest heartrate monitor strap, the HRM-200. It’s the first HR monitor I’ve seen with an actual “On/Off” button, mainly a result of compliance with upcoming EU data security EU regulation.
Assisted ski touring device E-SKIMO has made its extremely exciting debut at CES. I always wondered when someone would create the e-bike equivalent for touring skis, and I don’t have to wonder any longer!
Edible Garden has entered the sports nutrition fray with Kick. Sports Nutrition. Their focus seems to be on sustainable, organic sports nutrition, but they are entering an extremely crowded market.
Hoka has launched their newest super shoe, the Cielo X1 2.0. Another drop into the carbon-plated super shoe bucket!
Some News
Some News shares select news stories from across the sports and design world.
Fubo has dropped its lawsuit against streaming conglomerate Venu Sports due to its acquisition by Disney. I did not anticipate this outcome, although I probably should have. It will be interesting to see if any competitors sue to stop this merger now!
Saudi Arabia appears to be nearing terms to acquire 10% of global broadcaster DAZN. Countries in the Middle East continue to bet big on sports, which serves as a rising tide lifting all boats, but I’m growing increasingly concerned about the sustainability of the current surge.
The French mint will be replacing medals from the Paris 2024 Olympics that have already tarnished. I’ll be honest, I did not know that the national mint was involved in creating the medals, but maybe they’d prefer it that way, especially now!
Another sports stadium construction fiasco is brewing, as the 76ers have decided not to move to downtown Philly. The public funding of pro sports stadiums is in such an interesting place right now, and I think in 10 years we might already be looking back at the era of the construction of the largest sports stadiums in order to hit tighter budgets moving forward.
Researchers have quantified the decline in "Red Advantage" in Olympic boxing due to an increase in automated scoring tech. I love weird visual psychology studies like this— it’s a great reminder that color salience and perception matters in sports!
UTMB is partnering with Chinese company Aonijie to be its official hydration pack supplier. This move has been met with some consternation from local the trail running community who believe the race should partner with smaller, local brands. Perception of the UTMB group by more veteran trail athletes continues to sour, but if this brand is like Iron Man, local and grassroots pushback won’t create huge resistance, and UTMB will continue to grow.
Grab Bag
Grab Bag features interesting or useful sports innovation and product design resources, ranging from books and websites to individual graphics.
Techradar highlighted the best wearable and fitness tech at CES 2025. It was somewhat of a quieter year overall for health tech at CES, with most of the news covering incremental improvements to existing products rather than completely out-there technology.
Ever wondered what a market report for bowling looks like? Neither did I, but apparently the overall equipment industry for bowling is almost on track to break $2B in market value in a decade!
In light of the Park City strike ending, Joe Pompliano shared a breakdown (and handy flow chart) of the finances of Vail Resorts. The video review is worth a watch.