There are many possibilities for integrating ingredient brands into PPE in the marketplace today. With ever-increasing demands on safety, customers are looking for brands that take a stance. However, with increasing opportunities, some prioritization might be needed. In doing so, it is important to recognize the power of a simple idea and simple solution that requires little friction when implementing the feature.

ISPO 2021 - Digitalization and Sports Tech

What tech products and digital services have conquered the world regardless of industry, and what do they have in common? -They all are simple to use for all stakeholders and its user-experience is absolutely outstanding.

This year at ISPO 2021, the world’s biggest outdoor trade show, the overarching theme was digitalization and sports tech. Nowadays, many equipment producers in the outdoor segment are searching for new ways of elevating their products to become smarter. For certain product categories, that means finding the next equipment features that would increase the value of the products and which customers want to pay extra for. How do we find that feature, or ingredient brand to go with?

Based on our surveys, the most important strategy is to look for the features that keep it simple - for all stakeholders involved. What do we mean by that?

Simplicity for Brands/Equipment Producers

In order for a technology to be truly valuable in the sports equipment industry, it needs to be simple for equipment brands to integrate. Reworking supply chains or production lines is certainly possible, but it’s notoriously complex and expensive. This all shows up on the bill of materials. If a feature is simple to integrate, it can easily slot into existing product lines and thereby existing products which enables a very fast expansion rate of that ingredient brand. To give an example, that is what Twiceme does as we strive for building a global standard of vital information.

Simplicity for End-users

In general, humans base most of their judgements on their first impression. Therefore, the initial customer’s journey is key to seamlessly onboarding them if a new feature has been integrated into the gear. There are as few unnecessary and time consuming steps as possible to the start-up process. An intuitive hangtag following with the equipment and the avoidance of painstaking sign-ups are ways to mitigate these obstacles. Furthermore, if it is a digital feature, please don’t force the end-user to continuously charge it every other day. From our interviews with end-users, it’s clear that such essential steps in the user experience takes away the joy of a digital feature into the gear.

Conclusion

There are many possibilities for different features or ingredient brands in the marketplace. Everything that increases safety is a good idea. But we all need to prioritize. In doing so it is important to recognize the power of a simple idea and simple solution that requires little friction for implementation. Changes to equipment production lines have long been slow and synonymous with heavy investments, but as we move toward the possibility of easier implementations, the simple solutions can now be prioritised.

At Twiceme, we aim to help people have safer adventures and working environments in the simplest way possible. In following the path of least resistance, we can quickly build a global standard that collects the strongest brands and professional rescuers in one community.

Interested to discuss if Twiceme could be of help to elevate your equipment? Get in contact with us here.