116 – Meg Burich of Adidas – Embedded Coach

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Sports apparel technology …

Meg Burich (bio), Marketing Director for Digital Sports for Adidas Group, a global sports company, join Marc Raco, Rob Sanchez and Nataliya Makulova at The 2016 Smithers Apex WEAR Conference in Boston, MA.

Embedded sensors, samples, and teaming with coaches

Burich speaks on the scope of the Adidas Group and the samples she brought with her, including a sports bra and men’s jersey worn by pro athletes in soccer rugby etc. both with embedded sensors as part of the fabric, providing performance-enhancing info. She reveals that the technology is seamless, easy to wear, works in regular washing conditions, makes everyone smarter about what’s happening with the body during sports, providing metrics, optimizing stop/start sports such as basketball, soccer, rugby etc, helping prevent injury, and essentially creating a collaboration between Adidas and coaching teams.

Motivation, heart rate, and the right name

A discussion on coaching based on what can be learned from elite athletes, providing a coaching philosophy baked into a consumer experience, giving a broad range of access, and the mission of Adidas to help people be healthier. The positioning as fashion for sports, pushing apparel out which transitions through the day, taking basic pieces and adding technology, and activating people who are not active. Burich touches on the notion of how buying one new thing and wearing it can be motivational, and having the ability to be ready to eliminate the barriers to being active and be ready to go anytime. The proper pronunciation and history of the Adidas name, and what the brand is trying to accomplish at Wear Conference. How running sensors can help store associates to advise best and apply the same concepts on the field, capturing data on game loads to learn what an athlete is training for, looking at heart rates in relation to output, and why heart rate makes it personal, learning how the body responds to work.

Culture of sport, pushing performance, and the new happy hour

How to position sport tech apparel in non-apparel retail, the way brand messaging changes with embedded technology, from high-end sport to being healthy and medical, connecting with data, the question of others who don’t want to be connected, the culture of sport and embracing it, accepting new types of sport, vs. pushing performance in traditional sports, the new happy hour, and overcoming cost barriers for disadvantaged youth. Plus, Off the Grid Questions cover dreaming, running, being without a coach, and when water shuts out the world.