Sporting goods makers who once treated technology as a threat are boosting revenue with online social-networking tools, mapping programs and wireless gadgets.
The shift is driven by falling costs for global positioning systems (GPS) and other technology, making once-pricey consumer goods affordable. In addition, educators are scrambling to get tech-savvy kids to exercise more.
Start-ups and other companies plunging into the industry are chasing consumers like Robert Parris, a sales and marketing executive in Atlanta shopping for his first set of golf clubs. Parris, 43, likes tech, and has budgeted up to $500 for "the latest and greatest," he says. He'd consider a GPS device, too, "if it makes it easier to find the ball."
Technology has become such a force that the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association is hosting a three-day conference on the subject starting Tuesday. Speakers are to include executives from Google and Nike.
Tech's been part of sports for years, spurring lighter-weight tennis rackets and powerful golf clubs like Callaway's elyBig Bertha. But marketers began worrying it was a threat in the late 1990s, when consumers began spending more time in sedentary activities like Web surfing, says Mike May, a spokesman for the sporting goods trade group. Now, the industry is leveraging tech in sports to get more business in:
•Running. Location Nation near Denver is launching a service today that lets runners upload and display on Google maps data captured with GPS gadgets. The data, such as distance traveled, are stored on the company's site, where users can then meet others with similar interests — as on social-networking sites Facebook and MySpace. nws The service is free; the company may seek revenue from ads targeted by interest, including hiking, rafting and other sports.
A second service, to be launched in November, lets subscribers track, for example, a runner's marathon progress in real time on Location Nation's site; monthly fees start at $12.95.
