|
Pictured: Canada's gold medallist triathlete Simon Whitfield, left,
and reigning female hurdling champ Perdita Felicien, top right.
As the countdown to the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens begins,
some of the fiercest competition has already taken place away from the
track, the field and the pool. Instead, it has been held in high-tech
research centres and marketing boardrooms as the rivals in the hugely
lucrative business of developing and selling sportswear and athletic
apparel search for an edge.
"You cannot rest for a second. You have to be
on the offensive all the time, and you have to be prepared to fail,"
Mario Lafortune, the Quebec-born Director of the Nike Sport Research
Lab in the US, told Access recently.
In recent months, news of new sportswear innovations
has often overshadowed reports on the athletes themselves. Major press
surrounded the unveiling of an Adidas running shoe with a battery-operated
sensor, microprocessor and electric motor designed to adjust the shoe’s
cushioning while in use (expected price: US$250). Also scoring media-wise
is the PredatorPulse, a new Adidas soccer shoe using technology developed
at the University of Calgary which reportedly increases ball speed by
three per cent, and was recently premiered by superstar David Beckham.
The Olympics provide an invaluable marketing opportunity
for these companies to showcase their wares. "We are really pumped
for our campaign for Athens 2004," says Derek Kent, head of corporate
communications for Nike Canada. "We will be profiling our athletes
through our footwear apparel and equipment, [and] showcasing them and
the products they wear to make them go faster."
Nike Canada won the much-coveted right to sponsor
and equip the Canadian track & field and rowing teams at Athens.
Having national sporting heroes like 2000 Olympic gold medallist triathlete
Simon Whitfield and reigning female hurdling champ Perdita Felicien
using their equipment affords Nike a great chance at self-promotion.
In turn, Felicien is an enthusiastic ambassador for
the firm. "They are very innovative and are definitely leading
the fold," she said recently. "It is great to be part of a
company that looks at the athletes and their comfort more than anything
else."
She explains that the aesthetics of her apparel are
important. "The way you look and the way you dress has the ability
to effect how you feel and essentially how you perform. I look for apparel
that is sleek, form fitting, and makes me feel fast and fit."
"There is a lot of rivalry between the different
companies," acknowledges Lafortune. "We sponsor some teams;
Adidas, Puma or Reebok sponsor others. Within one country we may both
have some Olympic teams."
Lafortune is eagerly ticking off the days until the
Olympics open. "Most of our work is completed now so it is more
the anticipation of waiting for the Games, to see the athletes wearing
our gear and how they are going. It is like a three-and-a-half year
project for us, and now we are done. The Games are a very important
part of our schedule as this is an event the athletes spend years preparing
for."
He stresses that "at Nike, our efforts to provide
the right tools for the athlete have grown exponentially." For
Athens, Lafortune will be closely checking the performance of some of
his new or improved lines, including an established sprint shoe called
the Monster Fly ("this year it is more than an evolution, it is
like a new generation") and a new version of the Zoom Miler, a
track & field model "which is a new approach from previous
product."
The 30-member Nike team researches the biomechanics,
psychophysics and physiology of performance enhancement and injury prevention
through footwear and apparel using a state-of-the-sciences facility.
Given that these events are often decided by mere hundredths of a second,
technological improvements become crucial to an athlete’s chances
of bringing home the gold. The good news for the weekend athlete is
that these innovations are making their way into the mall.
"For the first time in many cases, the footwear
and apparel you’ll see on the track and in the field in Athens
will be taken down to the retail level," says Derek Kent. "Those
in the public who see the athletes on TV can get access to that product."
Obviously the professional and retail versions aren’t
the same – the in-store cost would be prohibitive – but "there
is a very close correlation" between what the athletes wear and
what appears in stores, confirms Lafortune. "When you work with
different materials – and you better understand the athlete –
that serves as the base from which you can develop a product for the
consumer."
The intersection of science, medicine and sports can
have a seamy and unethical side, as in the development of performance-enhancing
drugs, blood-doping, etcetera, but Lafortune’s work provides no
such moral dilemmas. "Our job is great. You don’t have dirty
fingers when you are done. Our work is providing for the athlete. At
the end of the day, they are the ones out there performing."
|
