The sporting goods industry is always on the lookout for technical innovation that can boost athletic performance. Over the past decade, athletic companies have been working with graphene firms to use this new material to develop a new range of products that will deliver a competitive advantage.
Shoes boosted by graphene
Dr Aravind Vijayaraghavan
Graphene is now known as an amazing material that can be used as an additive in a large range of applications. It exhibits very useful physical, chemical, and mechanical properties, allowing it to substantially improve a material’s performance.
Used as an additive, graphene enhances material performance.
inov-8 is a company that sells high-quality sporting goods to athletes and adventure-seeking hikers. Renowned as the world leader in grip, inov-8 has always sought disruptive technologies to keep their edge. In December 2016, they started to develop a graphene-based rubber for enhancing their grip.
This UK-based company collaborates with the National Graphene Institute and launched the first-ever sports footwear incorporating graphene: G-SERIES and G-GRIP.
With this innovation, they are delivering the world’s toughest grip. According to ASTM, an ISO testing standard for elastomer, this shoe is proven to be 50% tougher, 50% more elastic, and 50% harder-wearing.
This product demonstrates graphene’s ability to significantly improve material performance.
A Showcase for material innovations
Sporting goods are a market where performance is the heart of the business, in particular for companies providing high-quality goods. Graphene’s ability to offer endless possibilities for manufacturing sporting goods leads to major innovations in this sector.
It’s also an opportunity for graphene companies to test their products in order to demonstrate their efficiency in the sporting goods industry.
Like the introduction of carbon fiber, first used in tennis rackets 25 years before being used in aircraft, showcasing graphene performance in the sporting goods industry can speed product time to market and increase credibility.
Moreover, the latest progress in the production process now makes graphene more affordable, with the cost steadily decreasing.
Although this new material seems easy to work with, industrialists still need the advice of experts. Carbon Waters has been working on comparable use cases and now has a complete vision of how graphene can be added to various types of materials to enhance performance.
Currently, research has been focusing mainly on improving high-tech equipment with graphene. We have begun to see the incorporation of graphene in all types of sporting goods used in tennis, skiing, surfing, and cycling.
Endless Possibilities
Why use graphene in sports equipment ?
As seen in the case of athletic shoes, graphene brings better performance in different ways: mechanical resistance, ruggedness, and elasticity. However, graphene is also leading to innovation in lighter and more flexible material as well as in thermoregulated equipment.
Currently, the applications carried out in this sector are only the tip of the iceberg. More and more companies are adding this strategy to their core business, such as inov-8.
Thanks to their innovative shoes boosted by graphene, inov-8 has make a breakthrough in the athletic shoe industry.
That’s why the sporting goods industry has been increasingly interested in graphene. While marketing campaigns show off graphene’s incredible performance, new projects carried out with graphene’s specialists allow for the development of new and better products.
Experts are needed to incorporate graphene into applications. There are different forms of graphene exhibiting different properties.