Geek Locker Roundup #41
July 25th, 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, we got back into the flow on publishing after some (welcome) disruptions due to vacation and travel. I investigated the reasons why team sizes in individual sports are what they are, particularly through the lens of the playing field size. I also recapped a now month-old effort by Faith Kipyegon to become the first woman to run a sub-four mile, which ended up being a lot more involved than I expected! The history of running world records is fascinating, and it was a blast to put this latest effort into context before turning an eye towards what might come next in this pursuit.
Over the next two weeks, I’ll share a quasi-article, quasi-rant about the lack of “starter packs” for outdoor sports. Companies like Patagonia, North Face, REI, and so many others could sell bundles of gear that cover everything you need for activities like skiing or trail running or camping, but none do. Why?
I’ll also dive into the duopoly dominating the ski resort market in the United States (and expanding globally) in the Epic and Ikon passes. This article may seem slightly anachronistic in the summer months, but time is running out to get season passes for next year at discounted rates, so maybe some more insight into the companies that manage most large resorts in the US will help inform buyers! Plus I just purchased my Ikon pass, so it’s on the mind for me.
As always, I appreciate your engagement and please share with others who might be interested in reading about sports innovation. On to the news (which was a bit quite for the past two weeks)!
Company Cable
Updates about major sports tech company transactions.
Former Milwaukee Bucks owners Marc Lasry has reportedly raised a $785M fund to invest in sports teams and infrastructure. Ares Management is also launching a new private sports and media investment fund (for wealthy individuals). At some point every professional sports team will be owned by a variety of private equity funds, so effectively the members of major pension funds in the US. The consequences of that will be fascinating in the long run.
Indian recreational sports team community generation and venue booking company Hudle has raised a $2.5M Series A. Infrastructure for recreational and youth sports is definitely a hot investment space at the moment, so I would expect their company to continue growing rapidly.
Brooklyn-based Padel House has raised $7M in a Series B to expand their Padel venue business. Padel and Pickleball have continued to grow steadily since their explosion during the COVID-19 pandemic, but I would be curious to see projections for the next 5-10 years of industry growth.
Startup Movetru has raised $1.9M to use biomechanical sensor data to predict injury and illness. Typically, I assume hardware-software companies that build sensors for different parts of the human body will eventually be acquired by an industry giant like Garmin or Apple. I would imagine the same might be true here in a few years as well!
New Releases
New sports products and major features that are hitting the market.
Lange has joined numerous ski boot designers to implement BOA technology on their newest release. I purchased my last pair of ski boots in 2013 when I was in middle school, so I might need to get in on the action with these boots…
Sandal-focused footwear company Keen is set to launch its first trail running shoe at the end of July. It was only a matter of time, IMO.
Topps has announced a slew of new Premier League card types to collect in the 25/26 season. The entire trading card market continues to expand in value rapidly, so it’s unsurprising to see card companies look to push into more out-there design and rarity space.
Callaway is bringing back a limited edition hockey stick putter in honor of the release of Happy Gilmore 2. I don’t golf enough to warrant a purchase but man, it looks so cool.
Some News
Select news stories from across the sports and design world.
Many high-volume sports gamblers might soon be looking for a new hobby as they can no longer deduct 100% of their losses from federal taxes. Sneakily, this might be the biggest news of the past two weeks, especially for the burgeoning sports gambling industry and the casino business more broadly.
NFL Films appears to be nearing a sale by the league to ESPN's parent company Disney. The deal may be worth ~$2B, and NFL may actually receive equity in ESPN as part of the deal. The sports media landscape is changing quite rapidly!
DAZN is opening a new sports technology capability center in India and plans to invest ~$60M in the next 3 years. DAZN is less prevalent in the US for the big-four sports but at some point they seem poised to make a huge splash domestically.
Unrivaled has added 14 collegiate basketball players to NIL deals as the upstart league looks to expand in its second year. The 3v3 league continues to grow, and investing in upcoming talent to ensure their participation during the WNBA offseason seems incredibly smart.
Drake Star Partners has found over 500 sports tech company deals worth over $52B in the first half of 2025, though some are indirectly related, whatever that means. I am a bit skeptical about “indirect” links to sports tech since that could include everything from sports team sales to major apparel company acquisitions, the latter of which I think would count.
North Carolina provided Charlotte a grant of $2M to help them win the bid to host the MLS All Star Game. The news was met with very mixed opinions, and highlights the challenge of using public funds for pro sports events and infrastructure, even at lower total dollar values.
Grab Bag
Interesting or useful sports innovation and product design resources, ranging from books and websites to individual graphics.
Researchers at the University of Bradford are developing a boxer concussion-tracking software product. Even the initial results they show during the short TV spot highlight the short-term impact of concussions and I could easily see this product being included in NFL concussion protocol tests in the future.
Researchers investigated the impact of relative NFL defensive player position on offensive player movement (among other topics). It’s a quite interesting read that more traditional coaches would likely assert veers pretty far into the type of advanced analytics that are superfluous to decision-making.