Denver, CO. — Day 1 of the 2016 SFIA Industry Leaders Summit featuring many of the top executive minds of the sports and fitness technology worlds illustrated how rapidly technological shifts are taking place in the sporting industry.
The day began with a sports and fitness startup challenge that was eventually won by Hookit, who beat out four other impressive upstart brands in the sports and fitness space to win the inaugural challenge.
After the challenge, a few of the industry’s top influencers made presentations about where technology is truly moving the fitness industry forward as the brands and the industry as a whole continue to shift.
Vice President of Reebok Future Bill McInnis made the opening presentation and spoke about how 3D printing continues to become more prevalent in the athletic apparel manufacturing space. He specifically mentioned that it doesn’t take rocket science to create a new shoe, but that a lot of the processes that shoes now undergoe sometimes has the advanced science feel.
A great video was shown on the 3D printing process below:
Got the exclusive #sneakpeak today on @Reebok new sneakers using 3D #tech, check them out >> pic.twitter.com/RqCL2x9Xt6
— upace (@upaceapp) September 14, 2016
The day then shifted over to US Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez, who focused on how innovation and disruption has changed the American and worldwide workforce and how it is always up to everyone to continue to stay on top of the best processes to stay ahead in the ever competitive worldwide business market. Technology was specifically mentioned as the driver of this disruption and those in the sports and fitness space are experiencing an accelerated version of this disruption.
The panels concluded with an interesting discussion from the Amazon sports team, who have been very busy in the sports market. It was just last week that it was rumored Amazon was looking to get into live streaming rights in the sports space, but this notion was affirmed with Fouzan Mansuri and Ryan Elvers confirmed this notion and said that the team was looking to continue to power forward in the space.
The ‘All or Nothing’ web series was specifically mentioned as a success for the brand and with fellow digital streaming competitor Twitter starting their NFL broadcasts tonight, Amazon is going to be monitoring closely to position themselves ideally in the ever changing television landscape.
Overall it was a good Day 1 of the SFIA Industry Leaders Summit as many pioneers in the fitness and sports technology spaces demonstrated their latest ideas to take the industry into the future.
To stay tuned with live updates, be sure to follow the @theSFIA on Twitter as well as @SportTechie.