DENVER — To kick off this year’s SFIA Industry Leaders Summit, the Sports & Fitness Industry Association added a new event to represent technologies continuing to impact the sports world. SFIA held the “Start-Up Challenge” competition Wednesday morning and highlighted five companies that were picked out of 56 applicants that hoped to get in front of the many sports industry leaders in the audience.
The winning company that will be announced tonight will receive one free year of SFIA Membership, real-time feedback from CEOs in the industry, and six months of working with Uproar PR to further promote its business in the sports technology arena.
“SFIA continues to remain at the forefront of innovation, and that was obvious during today’s Inaugural SFIA startup challenge, “ SFIA’s Senior Director of Sales John Peters said. “The five companies that presented today came from a pool of 56 apps. The competition was incredibly competitive. More than 20 countries submitted apps to be involved. Given the CEOs and leading brands on the judges panel, it’s easy to understand why this contest drew so much interest. We plan to expand and continue to highlight small business and innovation within our industry at what’s become the No. 1 sports/fitness executive summit.”
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SFIA’s mission in the event was to highlight startups looking to innovate in the sports fitness and technology space and promote them and help them turn their concepts into reality. With fitness being paramount to good health, many of the startups in the fitness space can improve an individual’s health and overall life.
“I thought the range of companies that presented today was great. One just started a few months ago and another that may be acquired or be ready to sell,” Under Armour’s Kelly Becker said. “Picking a winner is going to be extremely competitive because of the overall quality level of all companies that presented.”
The companies that presented also enjoyed their time and the platform SFIA provided to get their message out.
“It was really exciting being a part of this year’s Start up challenge,” said Kent McKeaigg, the CEO of OrderMyGear. “I was honored to be among these innovative companies. SFIA has done a great job bringing industry leaders and industry innovators together to create new opportunities for growth.”
Here are the five presenting companies:
- OrderMyGear: A software platform connecting sports teams, brands/manufacturers, and their distributors to facilitate group apparel and equipment purchases online.
- Hookit: A sports technology platform that offers the most powerful solutions to quantify and track the value and performance of sponsorships using big data and deep analytics.
- Shnarped: A sports app that allows users to join a community of athletes, inspire others, learn new things and showcase skills with amazing video editing tools across all sports.
- SymGym: This interactive, augmented reality workout is based on the SymGym controller. SymGym uses bodily movement to control video game actions.
- Gearsay: A search and discovery engine optimized for recreational sports. GearSay empowers consumers to find, store, share and interact with content from brands, coaches, top performers, events, experiences, places and more.