About Us

Thanks for popping into this page to find out more ‘About’ the Blog which I will refer to it as STB here. If you are interested in how this all started or a bit of history, read this post – link. If you are interested in what’s the latest things STB is involved in, check out the Now page (link). Here, I would give you a brief idea of why STB exists, what it is hoping to achieve and how.

The Motivation

Sports Technology is an interesting and exciting industry. There are lots of opportunities and gaps for innovation. When people see new sports technology, their first reaction is usually “wow” or “cool” or “<insert trendy exclamation>”. At the same time, beyond the “wow” effect, not many sports technology products live very long in the market place. I can’t say I know all the reasons but I know that a lot of sports technology products are born out of startups; the startup journey can be a challenging one no matter what industry or problem is being solved. Sometimes, even with a really good product trying to solve a known problem, it is hard for sports startups to get through to the wider market. The book Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore explains that idea pretty well and it coined this ‘chasm’ chart that became quite popular. In essence, the ‘chasm’ is the gap between the early adopters and the early majority. Startups that manage to cross the chasm are likely to succeed. But (obviously) it is no easy feat.

Creating Greater Awareness & Connecting More Dots

STB is made up of a small team of sports technologists and scientists who are passionate about sports technology and how it could positively impact athletes, coaches and sports practitioners. We are in this unique position to present information about novel sports technologies and how they are useful (or productive) to different athletes. We do this by bringing news of exciting developments in the world of sports technology, writing articles on technologies applied in specific sports applications and doing reviews of different sports tech products when we are able to get our hands on them. Having some background in research also enables us to dig into research literature and share some of that perspective. At the end of the day, by sharing relevant knowledge and information, we hope to create greater awareness of the various sports technology products and how they are used. Then particularly with product reviews, we help readers understand a new product better and often receive direct messages containing specific questions about those products. That way we are a conduit between end-users and sports tech companies. Also, while testing and reviewing the products, we inevitably provide feedback when we find ‘bugs’ or features that don’t work well which makes us Quality Assurance people as well.

Collaborating With STB

Here are some reasons why you might want to reach out to STB:

• If you are a Sports Technology Company – and if you have news to share (e.g. new product launch, new feature launch, new partnerships etc) or if you would like STB to review your product or test your product – drop us a note and we will be glad to help out.
• If you are working on a Sports Technology Project – and you would like to consult with us or you need assistance either in terms of technology development or research and development – please contact us and tell us more about your project.
• If you are an Athlete or Coach and have questions about certain technologies or you are looking for a solution that isn’t in the market – do reach out too and we might be able to offer some assistance or at least point you in the right direction.

Sharing Or Reposting Our Content

We are always happy when other sites want to re-share or repost our content. One website that has done that before is Bullpen, which also has awesome content about the sports business and startup world. One thing I really appreciate about Bullpen is Clint (the founder) always checks in with me before he reposts an article (example). Unfortunately, there are other sites out there that do repost content (“copy-paste”) without permission and it is quite frustrating especially when no attribution is given and they remove relevant links in those articles. I just want to point out that every piece of content that is created in STB involves hours and hours of effort – from having conversations with sports tech founders to reading through research articles and running tests and even analysing data. Simply copying and pasting the content without asking and without giving a mention of the blog is very disappointing behaviour. So if anyone would like to repost content, feel free to reach out and drop us a note and I will be happy to give permission and even happily reshare your post on social.

-JC