Archive for February, 2010
Written by Enid Burns on 26 February 2010
Nike makes team uniforms from recycled plastic bottles.
The recent trend in sports and fitness clothing is green, sustainability. Nike is part of this trend and especially when it comes to football (that’s soccer to many of you), and the upcoming 2010 World Cup in South Africa. This year Nike is outfitting the Brazil team with home and away kits, plus eight away kits for other Nike-sponsored federations appearing in the games. What’s so sustainable about these kits or outfits you ask? Nike’s fabric suppliers sourced plastic bottles from landfill sites in Japan and Taiwan to produce the jerseys and shorts.
Eight plastic bottles produce one jersey. To turn bottle into soft, breathable fabric bottles the manufacturer melts the plastics down to produce new yarn and then convert that yarn into fabric to construct jerseys. Just because the jerseys are made from plastic doesn’t mean players will drown in their own sweat. Designed to keep players drier, cooler, and more comfortable, the outfit has a handful of features. The Dri-Fit fabric is 15 percent lighter than previous Nike kit fabrications, which also benefits players’ ability to do their stuff out on the field. The coordinating shorts have additional ventilation zones below the waistband and near the base of the spine to keep the outfit breathable.
The outfits have some protection built in as well. Nike Pro Combat, adds protection against light impact and abrasion in the Slider and Impact shorts. The Pro Combat also features a therma Mock that protects a player’s neck against harsh conditions such as sun.
The process saves raw materials and reduces energy consumption by up to 30 percent compared to the manufacture of virgin polyester. For the upcoming season and competition, Nike salvaged roughly 13 million plastic bottles, totaling around 254,000 kg of polyester waste from landfill sites. That’s enough to stretch a distance of 3,000 kilometers if the bottles are laid out end-to-end.
The games take place in South Africa with teams from Brazil, The Netherlands, Portugal, U.S.A., South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Serbia, and Slovenia. Get your own team kits at nike.com and nikefootball.com.
Check out Nike’s video: Nike Introduces 2010 National Team Kits Designed for Increased Performance with Lower Environmental Impact
Tags: football, Nike, plastic bottles, Soccer, South Africa, Sustainable clothing, team kit, World Cup
Posted in Apparel, General, Pro Sports, Sustainable | No Comments »
Written by Enid Burns on 25 February 2010
Four-way stretch gives you freedom in a workout while providing shape.
It helps to look good, even while you sweat. Lucy Activewear offers a line of clothing with performance built in. The lucy Power Pant II provides shaping and is constructed from materials that are odor-inhibiting, moisture wicking, offer core compression, and 4-way stretch. The Power Pant II gives you a
yoga pant-style that skims the body including the hip and thigh area where we could all use a little slimming help. The garment’s Powermax material is a machine washable Supplex lycra fabric.
Another feature of the lucy line is that the company doesn’t believe in the one-size-fits-all approach, at least when it comes to height. Pants are available in short, regular, and tall. It’s too often overlooked, and the wrong length can lead to awkward workouts and injuries if the pant leg gets underfoot.
Lucy activewear Lucy Power Pant II
Tags: Powermax, workout clothing, Yoga pant
Posted in Apparel | No Comments »
Written by Peter Suciu on 24 February 2010
There are plenty of smart looking handsets, but there are times when a stylish smartphone isn’t a smart move. 
If you’re travels take you to the rough part of town or on rugged treks, consider the new Sonim XP2 Spirit handset, which is now available to our friends in Europe. It can handle a drop on concrete from up to two meters, and can endure temperature shifts from -20C to +55C, and this handset can even get wet and wild to boot.
This week Sonim announced a new partnership with Nimbuzz, an award-winning next generation mobile messaging service, which would see the Nimbuzz Java client pre-installed on the XP2 Spirit handsets. This gives users access to IM and chat client that aggregates multiple social networks into one contact list. The phone further features an in-phone app store, plus an MP3 player and still/video camera making this a communication and entertainment device for your mobile adventures!
Tags: Mobile Phone, Nimbuzz, Rugged, Sonim XP2 Spirit
Posted in Mobile Phone, Travel | No Comments »
Written by Enid Burns on 23 February 2010
Omega has kept track of time for the Olympic Games since 1932.
Omega has had its hand in the Olympic Games since 1932. At that time Omega supplied 30 stopwatches to track all 14 sports events. Over the years Omega developed timing technology such as the photo finish, which captured images of athletes as they crossed the finish line. This helped determine who had the lead when all the competitors finished in a group.
The drive to advance its accuracy and reliability in timing for the Olympics means Omega does much more than supply 30 stopwatches to the games. In Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games Omega deployed 220 timekeeping professionals and engineers supported by 290 local volunteers. The watch manufacturer brings roughly 250 tons of equipment for timekeeping, on-venue results, and TV services. The equipment and support from timekeeping professionals tracks athletes to the split second, and often means the athletes wear sensors so they are accurately tracked during competition.
Omega Watches
Via: CNET
Tags: Omega Watches, Timekeeping, Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics
Posted in Equipment, Pro Sports | No Comments »
Written by Peter Suciu on 22 February 2010
Remember that very early episode of The Flintstones where Barney invented the gyro-chopter that he had to pedal to get off the ground (and for those who care, Fred had to flap his arms)? Well that’s sort of what the iTech Fitness Flight Simulator brings to mind, except of course you can pedal without ever actually taking flight (and no one needs to flap his or her arms).
But if you’re looking to get a workout with your games, the company offers a line of products built around the concept of adding fitness to gaming. In the case of the iTech Fitness Flight Simulator players can dogfight against others, fly a variety of aircraft and even get a bit lighter in the process.
Happy flying and gaming!
iTech Fitness Web Page
Tags: Flight Simulator, games, iTech Fitness
Posted in Home Fitness, Video Games | No Comments »
Written by Enid Burns on 19 February 2010
Lost? Check out the GPS readout on your thumb in the X-Plore.XGX gloves from Zanier.
While Olympic skiers have a defined course to travel, the rest of us skiers want to explore the whole mountain whether it’s Whistler in Vancouver or another slop. The X-Plore.XGX gloves have GPS built in. The thumb display tracks altitude, speed, distance, duration, and weather conditions on a planned route. You can also adjust the settings, just don’t do it while flying down the slope.
Via DVICE
Zanier X-Plore.XGX gloves
Posted in Apparel, Equipment, Outdoors | No Comments »
Written by Enid Burns on 18 February 2010
The SCUTA project is working on custom garments for individual athletes for football, Taekwando, and Cricket.
Certain sports require padding to protect athletes. That padding has sections, panels, seams, and doesn’t always conform to the body. The Tailored Injury Prevention & Performance Improvement for Protective Sports Garments project known as SCUTA is a joint effort with experts from Loughborough, Nottingham, Cambridge, and Cranfield University in the U.K. and the Georgia Institute of Technology in the U.S. SCUTA works on the areas of manufactguring, sports technology, sports science, remote sensing, and impact and aims to develop garments tailored to the individual.
SCUTA concentrates on garments for three disciplines: Football, Taekwondo, and Cricket,
though it doesn’t specify if that’s American or European Football, one can assume both sports would benefit from the research. The group researches garments made from an additive manufacturing method known as Rapid Manufacturing, which allows for the production of virtually any geometry. It
Garments are made from layers of protective fabric.
can be custom made through a three-dimensional scanning process so each team member gets his own garment that fits the body perfectly. The garment
will be made in one piece, without seams or joins, and can be optimized to reduce the particular impact conditions of the sport and even position player. The defensive players may get a garment that’s protective in different areas than the offensive players. The project utilizes state of the art manufacturing, biomechanical, and impact facilities to continue its reasearch.
Tags: cricket, football, protective sports armour, SCUTA, taekwondo, Tailored Injury Prevention & Performance Improvement for Protective Sports Garments project
Posted in Apparel, Pro Sports, Research | No Comments »
Written by Peter Suciu on 17 February 2010
The Vancouver Olympics have not been without disappointment. The Russians lost out in the mixed figure skating for the first time in decades, and there were disappointments for snowboarders as well. But the most underwhelming performance may have been from the elec
tric powered ice cleaning machines. This followed delays in speed skating as the machines broke down.
This Olympic attempted to be “green,” and the results were less than spectacular. So much so that a traditional propane powered Zamboni machine was brought in from Calgary. We like the idea of a “greener” Olympics, but what exactly is so much better about an electric machine – especially if it doesn’t work?
Tags: Electric ice cleaning, Olympic, Speed Skating, Vancouver, Zamboni
Posted in Equipment | No Comments »
Written by Peter Suciu on 16 February 2010
Today marks the beginning of the action sport of curling in the 2010 Olympic Games. 
OK, we’re joking about the action, but the truth is that the sport has also gotten some high tech aids this year. The Edmonton Sun ran a feature this week that notes how the Canadians are using various advances such sensors, along with high-speed cameras to help.
Clearly even a sport using nothing more than a “rock,” brooms and ice can go high tech in the new millennium.
Tags: Curling, Olympics, Vancouver, winter Olympics
Posted in Equipment, Gadget | No Comments »
Written by Peter Suciu on 15 February 2010
Riding a thin board down a track made of ice, and doing it headfirst would be enough to scare the life out of you (And we say this with absolutely no disrespect to Georgian luge racer Nodar Kumaritashvili, who was tragically killed last week at the end of a training run. Our condolences go out to his family and his 
teammates).
Maybe that is why this sport is called the “skeleton,” which was permanently added to the Olympic Games in 2002. The sport evolved from a form of tobogganing called cresta sledding, and dates to the 1880s. The difference today is that riders only use their bodies to guide the sled, instead of using skates to help steer. The U.S. Olympic skeleton team prepared with help from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York where engineering professor Timothy Wei and his team built a special custom-made simulator to help understand wind resistance. But they should know against a highly trained athlete, resistance even of the wind variety if futile.
We wish all the skeleton and luge riders safe runs!
Via Scientific American
Tags: 2002, 2010, Kumaritashvili, Luge, Olympic Games, Olympics, Skeleton
Posted in Equipment, Gadget | No Comments »
