ShotTracker, a Kansas City-based startup, sprouted from the simple idea to keep track of a basketball player’s shot.
At its core, the ShotTracker is a wearable sensor that diagrams a user’s location on the court, with an additional sensor attached inside the hoop’s net. The user just has to insert a small, unnoticeable sensor into the accompanying wristband (or shooting sleeve sold separately). The two sensors work synchronized together via its software, where the app receives all of the data produced and stores it–to view results as they happen in real-time and progress over time.
Since its inception dating back to June 2013, ShotTracker has started to ship out their product to the market as of December 2014. They sold out their first batch of units within the inaugural two weeks. Getting great response from the marketplace, they’ve been gradually growing and seeing new opportunities arise each day.
Once they sold out the initial inventory, ShotTracker reached out to their customers for feedback on their respective experience, ease of use of the product, and ideas. With the flowing feedback being quite positive, there’s promise on new innovations to come because of the passion exhibited from this basketball-playing user base.
ShotTracker has already gone on to make adjustments to the hardware and the on-boarding process based on customer input. Building out new, proprietary algorithms that align better with the real world UX. Conventional triangulation processes do not suffice accurate enough measures for ShotTracker’s purposes. Basically, concentrating on identifying the appropriate sensor to distill the various axis coordinates within the time and space continuum. They’ve also received many new feature set requests that should keep them forging forward with their app development.
Today, though, marks the next shot of ShotTracker’s phase as a basketball wearable startup: a multi-year partnership with the Golden State Warriors’ Splash Brother also known as Klay Thompson.
Almost instantly after introducing the company’s mission and having Thompson, himself, test out the product in a workout, ShotTracker knew that Thompson would make for the perfect endorser.
“Klay Thompson is one of the best shooters in the game, and his star is rising quickly. Both ShotTracker and Klay know that a strong off-season work ethic is key to becoming a great shooter. Klay’s progress and success this season is proof of that. That makes him an ideal partner for ShotTracker,” Davyeon Ross, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of ShotTracker, tells SportTechie.
This partnership is the first of many to come for ShotTracker. Given its incipient state thus far, such a deal provides notable validation, both as a company and their product. It intends to be more than a traditional endorsement; rather, it’s targeting towards more tangible benefits for ShotTracker’s users.
The key activation point to launch the agreement revolves around the Virtual Basketball Camp, a first of its kind, where users will have direct access to Thompson.
ShotTracker wants hoopers from anywhere to be able to get the chance to train like and with an NBA pro. There will be a live online kick-off with Thompson on June 21; and then each day, campers will receive workouts from Thompson directly to their ShotTracker app. They will also receive the workouts and video demonstrations via e-mail. Thompson will be watching player results via the coach version of the ShotTracker app, commenting on social media about player performance in real-time. The camp will conclude with a live online awards ceremony with Thompson on June 28.
“The camp is free; participants just need to download the free ShotTracker player app and have access to a hoop. If the player wants to participate in Klay’s leaderboard and have the chance to win prizes, they must use the ShotTracker device; this is so we can validate stats,” says Ross.
This virtual camp, thus, is about giving players at all levels–no matter where they live–access to elite training. For the most part, this experience has been reserved for a small amount of people. ShotTracker is taking what would be a private event and opening it up to the public at large.
Thompson’s input for product development and participation aside, ShotTracker’s initiative for hosting a first-ever Virtual Basketball Camp is unique, in it by itself.
By and large, these kind of training camps have solely been to promote an apparel manufacturer or even a beverage brand, like LeBron James and Powerade. Besides posting skill drills videos on YouTube that’s typical for performance-based companies, ShotTracker is leveraging Thompson’s caliber of shooting and stardom to market its gadget strategically. An entire week during the off-season will be dedicated to increase awareness of ShotTracker in an authentic environment. Current and, more importantly, new users will enlist to ShotTracker’s app at no cost, while Thompson uses social media as a vehicle to introduce his followers with this product, building hype for consecutive amount of days. Users that opt-in will be incentivized to engage by winning real prizes, attracting other users to do the same and, conceivably, spike unit sales during this time.
Fresh off an opening playoff round sweep of the New Orleans Pelicans, Thompson is looking forward to sharing this experience with fans: “I’m excited to partner with ShotTracker to give ballers everywhere access to my favorite workouts via our Virtual Basketball Camp. It’s pretty intense, and will be a healthy challenge for players at all levels.”