November 2008 Newsletter
Welcome to the Design for Sport newsletter. We hope you enjoy it and feel able to contribute to future editions - our aim is to showcase the role of innovation and great design.
News
As we said in last months newsletter the downturn has affected all areas of business, and sport is no exception. However, in this article, the BBC's Bill Wilson notes that sport has a better chance than many of weathering the change. We've noticed very little difference so far and are still forming new business relationships but like a thunderstorm, the downturn is sweeping in. So let's be realistic and focus on delivering exceptional value and performance.
Innovation
Golf is one of those sports that rewards lots of tiny improvements, in stance, grip, equipment and mental approach - but we were impressed with this technology.
The analytical approach taken by engineers at QinetiQ - the ex government owned R&D company - seems to be paying off. We've seen the computer capture technique before but linking it with a new model of physical modelling is pretty persuasive.
New Product Development
Yamaha have emerged blinking into the bright light white heat of sports product development by soft launching the Bodibeat workout device.
A device that claims to match the pace of your workout with the music and beats you listen to sounds like a lot of fun. Although we think it was tested by the Gadget Show recently and came up short against other MP3 type devices.
Olympic News
Tessa Jowell seems to be on a one woman campaign for derailing the Olympics: her comment, "had we known what we know now" about the economy "we would almost certainly not" have bid, not only made the man on the street snigger but caused anger and resentment in the pre-bid phase for the countries preparing for the 2016 games.
It is difficult to believe that the original, highly speculative £3.85 Billion budget has increased to £9 Billion, especially when more in depth research reveals that the majority of the labour party cabinet were not supporters of any bid at all. In some respects its the worse sort of free pitching that has been seen. Still, as the woman herself later said, thousands of UK jobs generated from the games could be "economic gold at a time of economic need". And so say us.