Three trends that are causing a fundamental change in our world of sport, fashion and leisure

Big changes always start in a small way – wherever new innovations develop at the interface between people, markets, technologies and companies. It is tremendously important to keep an eye on all the small changes going on in the world because what at first seems to be just a weak signal can soon disrupt an entire industry. Today, in particular, new technologies and the internet can often propel so-called ‘backyard ideas’ to unexpected and revolutionary success. We only need to think of new business models such as UBER and AIRbnb, or Netflix and Spotify that have radically changed media consumption.

“Detecting new trends helps us to identify change at an early stage and to successfully incorporate it in product and service developments within our company.”

In the following we are presenting three current trends which we are convinced will soon radically change the world of sport, fashion and leisure.

Mass customization becomes hyper personalization

These days, the desire for individuality is most evident in product personalization. Creating and owning highly individualized products is seen today as a status symbol, giving consumers the feeling of lived uniqueness. Service platforms with integrated do-it-yourself functionalities are booming, and industrial integration of technologies such as 3-D printers is enabling personalized mass production at low cost. A good example of the new generation of 3-D printers is Tiko (video).

From on-and offline shopping to retail everywhere

“No longer confined to traditional brick and mortar, retail is increasingly everywhere.”

Deciding as a consumer whether I want to shop online or offline is no longer perceived as being a conscious act. All the various options for making purchases have become a completely natural part of our daily lives. Transactions are made ever easier thanks to mobile payments, and automated subscriptions allow for a fast exchange of goods. On the one hand, this leads to ‘convenience-oriented’ consumers who have become accustomed to having everything available at all times. Yet on the other hand, there is an increasing desire for more experience, for example in the form of pop-up stores or multi-sense marketing.

Amazon Echo delivers information, entertainment and our product purchases (video).

From wearables to invisibles

The term ‘wearable technologies’ stands for clothing and accessories with integrated electronic components or which are made of smart textiles. Examples include wristbands, plasters and T-shirts which monitor our stress levels, hormones and sleeping patterns and then send the data to a computer for evaluation. Going forward, wearables will increasingly become a hidden part of our clothing, with data processing and usage more and more of an invisible and omnipresent companion.

The Google project ‘jacquard’ shows us new innovations in the area of invisibles (video).