Arms Race in Sporting Goods

▪ 2000

by Gavin Forbes Ehringer

      Modern athletes, it is said, stand on the shoulders of yesteryear's greats; increasingly, however, improvements in conditioning, technique, training, and coaching are augmented not only by the advances made by earlier athletes but also by technological breakthroughs in equipment that help today's athletes soar higher, throw farther, hit with more power and control, and move with greater speed than ever before in sports history.

      It is not always clear if improvements in equipment correlate with world-record times; modern athletes benefit from better nutritional guidance, sports medicine, and sports science know-how than their predecessors had. Swimming records have fallen in the wake of new full-body swimsuits that reduce friction and drag, but in this case it is difficult to separate clothes and effect. Drugs may also play a part. At the turn of the previous century, it was not unusual for bicycle racers to smoke; tobacco was thought to be a stimulant that improved athletic performance. However, a scandal broke out in international cycling as recently as 1998 when teams that were found to have used banned performance-enhancing drugs were pulled from the famed Tour de France.

      Cycling is a good place to begin an exploration of how high-tech equipment plays a role in sports performance. In a mechanics' shop at the USA Cycling headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo., 12 bicycles, each representing $70,000 in design and fabrication, are suspended from the ceiling. These are the U.S. Cycling Team's “Superbikes,” track cycles constructed almost entirely of carbon fibre and aluminum alloys. These aerodynamic wonders, whose spare, narrow profiles and slippery monocoque frames give one the feeling of sculpture, were built solely to achieve supremacy on the short, banked tracks of Olympic sprint and pursuit cycling. While it is hard to compare track cycling times, owing to the strategic nature of the racing, it is fair to say that the bikes gave American riders an advantage in international competition. Marty Nothstein rode to three world championships for Team USA during the Superbike era, and Norm Alvis established the U.S. national record for the farthest distance ridden in one hour—51.5 km (32 mi) on Sept. 26, 1997.

      The Union Cycliste Internationale (cycling's international governing body) modified its equipment specifications for the year 2000, rendering the Superbikes illegal for international and Olympic competitions. The new standards will result in less technologically advanced cycles that can be built by nations without $1 million research budgets. Such is the nature of sports and technology: a tug-of-war between athletes, coaches, and the sporting goods companies, which use sports-equipment innovations to gain competitive advantages on the field and in the marketplace, pitted against less technologically advantaged opponents and the sports governing bodies charged with maintaining as level a playing field as possible.

      Sometimes the dam of opposition falls and a new technology floods a sport. In speed skating, after nearly a century of incremental equipment changes, an innovative new design called the clapskate was introduced in 1996. The new skate's hinged toe (the source of its namesake sound) allowed skaters to maintain contact with the ice throughout the entire power stroke and thus shaved nearly a second per lap off the times of top skaters. Many teams initially opposed the new technology, but they resigned themselves to the inevitable once the skates were deemed legal by the International Skating Union in 1996. Competitors quickly scrambled to adjust to the new technique demanded by the clapskates. Astoundingly, at the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan, men and women speed skaters set world or Olympic records in every event save one. The speed gap, largely attributable to the new skates, was so wide that American superstar Bonnie Blair's gold medal-winning 500-m performance at the 1994 Games in Lillehammer, Nor., would not have earned her a bronze in Nagano.

      Improvements in sporting goods are not always about shaving record times. Often the goals of sporting goods designers begin with the desire to make a sport easier and more fun. Recreational athletes make up the bulk of consumers in the sporting goods industry, whose sales in the U.S. alone totaled $44.3 billion in 1998. It is for these athletes that many of the biggest advancements in athletic shoes, clothing, and equipment are intended. Better performance for professional athletes is sometimes just a side-effect.

      The modern Alpine ski (characterized by a thermoplastic base and stainless steel edges) was created in 1950 by aerospace engineer Howard Head, a novice skier who wanted to make skiing easier to learn. In 1970 Head also pioneered the metal tennis racket head. Later innovations included oversize racket heads that had larger hitting areas, giving players more control. Such innovations had repercussions in the professional game; today's tennis players have rackets capable of delivering serves in excess of 193 km/h (120 mph) in the hands of a great player like Pete Sampras.

      Skiing has benefitted from numerous other technological advancements, including safety-release bindings in the 1960s and thermoplastic boots in the '70s. The biggest design revolution in decades, “shaped skis,” was introduced in the mid-1990s. Shorter than the “straight” skis they replaced, these new boards feature narrow waists and wide tips and tails that create a tighter turning radius and make it less difficult to initiate and finish turns. Initially created to make skiing easier for recreationists, the new designs have found their way onto the podiums of women's World Cup competitions and among top 10 finishers in men's U.S. Alpine championship slalom.

      Today's golf irons are not made of iron, and some are not even made of steel. Manufacturers use metals such as titanium, tungsten steel, zirconium, copper, and beryllium to create today's high-tech golf clubs. Golf club manufacturers also have pushed the limits of design to create easier-hitting woods (whose club heads are no longer made of wood but are made of metal). Callaway Golf, a leader in golf club manufacturing, made a big splash in the industry when it introduced the “Big Bertha” driver 10 years ago. At first, golfers were skeptical of the club head, which was roughly one-third larger than the popular drivers of the day, but acceptance was rapid once golfers discovered that the clubs were easier to hit. In 1999 the Big Bertha remained the best-selling golf club of all time, and manufacturers offered drivers that were even larger.

      The cost of design innovation can be steep; it was reported that Callaway spends between $30 million and $60 million a year in research and development. They have a $4 million test facility that includes a driving range with electronic sensors in the ground to provide feedback on backspin and sidespin as machine-driven balls strike the ground. Computer-aided design allows the manufacturer to design, build, and test new equipment in a matter of days, as opposed to the months it would have taken in the past.

      In golf, as in other sports, it is not always in the interest of the sport to allow athletes to improve their games drastically by means of improved equipment. Clearly, however, technological advancements in sports equipment not only have aided in improved performance and faster times but also have enabled more and more people, including the disabled, to compete and to reap considerable rewards in a wide array of sports.

Gavin Forbes Ehringer is a sports and outdoor writer, specializing in equestrian events, rodeos, skiing, and snowboarding.

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