Smart manufacturing, millennials and the state of sports retail.
Those are just some of the topics that are being discussed today during day two of the Sport & Fitness Industry Association Industries Leaders Summit in Denver.
“Our goal every year is to give attendees an invigorating, enlightening and empowering summit,” said Tom Cove, SFIA President and CEO.
This year that meant empowering Hookit.
The sports technology platform was the winner of SFIA’s first ever Start-Up Challenge, a competition of over 50 companies from more than 20 countries that highlight the industry’s latest innovations.
“I would say that we’ve created such an awesome forum so I’m really excited for our Start-Up Challenge,” SFIA Senior Director of Development John Peters said in advance of the summit. “We’ve been working on this for several months.
“We have the coolest and brightest minds at this event already so why not create an opportunity for them to judge five up and coming brands in our industry.”
President of LIfeFitness Chris Clawson was one of the judges for SFIA's inaugural Start-Up... [+]
A panel of senior sport and fitness industry executives judged presentations from five companies – OrderMyGear, Shnarped, SymGym and Gearsay in addition to Hookit – in front of a sold out house and deemed Hookit to be the most worthy company. As a result, the technology platform, which quantifies and tracks the value and performance of sponsorships, received one free year of SFIA membership and a public relations campaign from Uproar PR.
"SFIA provided an amazing opportunity for emerging companies like Hookit to share their stories with the foremost thought leaders in the sports industry," Hookit CEO Scott Tilton said. "We're ecstatic to have been selected as the winner of their inaugural Start-Up Challenge award. Being recognized for the innovative technology we've created to enhance the way sponsorship dollars are spent and earned is a great feeling.
While the crowning of Hookit as the top start-up in the sports industry was a highlight from the first day of activities in Denver, it was far from the only item on the agenda.
On the heels of the August release of the SFIA State of the Industry Report, which revealed a moderate year of industry growth and a decline in core sports and fitness participation, the exclusive Industry Leaders Summit -- Navigating Disruption -- was forced to discuss the changes facing the industry, especially in the retail sector.
“You can’t really talk about the sporting goods industry without talking about the state of retail,” Peters said before emphasizing the rise in 3D printing across the industry, a development highlighted by Reebok Vice President Bill Mcinnis discussing the companies 3D printing of shoes.
“This is the fourth event, we’ve successfully created such an awesome environment to talk about partnerships and things like that,” he continued as the SFIA hosted the fourth annual summit. “We saw a need for a sports and fitness executive forum to address big picture issues.”
This year that’s meant a changing and volatile marketplace, and while Hookit might not represent the biggest concerns in the industry, the start-up has certainly been the biggest winner from the event thus far.
