As I sat on my couch watching some sports highlights just a few nights ago, I found myself getting a bit angry at some of the broadcasters when I heard statements such as, “what a boneheaded play, what was he looking at?”. Or even, “I can’t believe he didn’t run to the other side, look how big the hole is.” What frustrated me about statements such as those, is the fact that no broadcaster, spectator, or even coach on the sideline is truly able to see what an athlete sees on the field from their first person point of view.
As an athlete, your goal every day of the week is to strive to get better, to make better decisions and to win games by helping your team. I began to think about how great it would be to actually witness and understand the reasoning behind why an athlete does what they do during a game or match. And in addition, the benefits of athletes being able to review their performance by seeing exactly what they saw on the field. Speaking as both a journalist, as well as a sports enthusiast, the ability to be able to witness the point of view of an athlete is something that would be beneficial to the entire sporting community.
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In late October 2015, a sportswear Tech Company named U-HWK, announced the launch of its first product, the U-HWK Show. Based in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, U-HWK is making waves in the way athletes perform after evaluating their training and in-game play. U-HWK’s first product, the U-HWK Show, is a sportswear action camera that allows athletes to capture in game, first person point of view footage, fitting faultlessly on over eight different sports uniforms including basketball, baseball, Cross Fit, football, hockey, lacrosse, running and tennis.
The U-HWK Show allows athletes and coaches to view post-play video analysis, along with highlight reels, and the ability to truly dissect an athlete’s on-field performance. With a lightweight mounting system able to absorb impact, in addition to being water resistant, the U-HWK Show offers both athletes and coaches from different sports the ability to become better, and become smarter.
Longtime friends and founders of U-HWK, Tim Priamo and Shea Kewin, launched the company after years of training and involvement as athletes. With combined playing experience that includes more than 450 OHL games, 200 CIS games and a stretch in the minor professional ranks, Priamo and Kewin set out to create a camera that allows athletes to become smarter by re-evaluating their decision making from a first person point of view, similar to the flight simulations used to train fighter jet pilots for combat.
“We came up with the idea late one night. We thought about how cool the idea of a wearable, in-game video concept would be”, says Priamo. “I would come back to the bench sometimes and my coach would try to talk to me about a situation that happened just seconds earlier….it’s easy to be a coach from the stands, but it’s much harder to talk when you’re not out there. The U-HWK Show will aid in making player-coach communication much easier.”
After ordering a prototype for the camera, Priamo and Kewin tested out the device, realizing that an aesthetic design of the camera is what was needed to truly make the U-HWK Show something all athletes would be comfortable wearing.
“No disrespect to predecessors in the industry, but we just found current solutions to not align with what we wanted as athletes, so we decided to do something about it”, explains Kewin, who spent a great deal of time looking at the physical appearance of the camera. “It’s body and wings were designed to work in conjunction with the mounting system, like that of a backpack, actually creating more of a harness than a mount.”
U-HWK has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the manufacturing costs of the product, which is set to ship in January 2016. Go check out the U-HWK Show and be one of the first to truly set yourself apart from other athletes, by evaluating your in-game decisions and becoming the best player you can be.
“Our goal was to make something completely original that’s form served its function, while also being eye-catching and appealing”, says Kewin. “I hope to believe that is what we achieved.”