ISPO Award Jurys 2019

Anna Rodewald is an expert in sustainability holding a diploma in chemical engineering and an M.A. in responsible management. With more than 25 years of experience within the global textile and sporting goods industry, she started her own business in 2013. Anna now works as Partner with GreenroomVoice as well as a freelance consultant, coach, and lecturer in sustainable development, quality, innovation, and systemic design. She loves alpine sports, working and spending time outdoors. She has been leading the ISPO Award Eco Jury since 2014.

As the founder and co-director of AIR – Agence Innovation Responsable (Annecy, France) – and the co-founder of OWL (Outdoor Waste Lab), Benjamin is passionate about the great outdoors, innovation and sustainability, and always favoring actions over words. Benjamin has slowly but steadily built a reputation within the outdoor industry while remaining engaged with the community and thriving on new projects and collaborations, both personal and professional. He is also a founding member of the Mycelium Colab, a European network of independent sustainability experts developing responsible and innovative business solutions for the sports and textile industry. 

Expert for: Eco Responsibility, Outdoor Fitness & Water Sports

Prof. Matthias Kimmerle worked for 20 years in the fashion, sports and outdoor industries in the fields of product development and management as well as production management. Since his appointment in 2014, he has been teaching at the University of Applied Sciences in Albstadt-Sigmaringen in the field of innovation management, particularly innovative alternative joining processes and textile ecology in the Textile and Clothing Technology bachelor's degree program and in the Textile and Clothing Management master's degree program with a focus on Industry 4.0. His research focuses on generative sustainable manufacturing processes.

Expert for: Eco Responsibility, Camping & Adventure

After completing his education as a textile finisher in a yarn dyeing company, Michael worked as a laboratory and development manager as well as a dyeing line manager until he moved into the chemical industry. As an application engineer, he gained a lot of experience in the field of dyestuff application and worked with customers all over the world. To round off his expertise, he took over product management for the special field of dyeing auxiliaries. Thus he formed the bridge between the dyestuffs and the auxiliary application/development. Michael has been Product Manager at Textilcolor AG since the beginning of 2017. He enjoys spending his free time with his family and various outdoor activities. He is also President of the Association of Austrian Textile Chemists and Colorists.

Kjersti Kviseth runs the design consultancy agency "2025design", the first European cradle to cradle firm dealing with the design, development, and manufacture of materials and products as well as sustainability assessments and strategies. She was Global Sustainability Manager at HÅG (office chairs) for ten years. In recent years, she specialized in the textile industry, including wool and sportswear. She also represents the International Wool Textile Organisation (IWTO) in the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) and is actively involved in the development of the Higg Index Product Tools. Kjersti loves nature and outdoor sports all year round and practices martial arts and medical qigong.

Lauren Zahringer finished her masters degree in Environment, Science and Society at the UCL and soon afterwards launched „The Radically Good“ in order to promote sustainability in businesses. She gained international work experience as a business development manager at major companies as well as start-ups. Since May 2018, she’s business development manager at „Sustainable Apparel Coalition“ in Amsterdam bundling her work experience with her knowledge in sustainability. 

Kai Landwehr is marketing manager at „myclimate“, a Swiss based NGO focusing on climate protection and sustainability measures. Before tapping into climate protection, Kai has worked ten years in the sporting goods industry as communications and brand manager for „Nike“. The studied historian is a football aficionado, a passionate hiker and in winter times a snowboarder with "great attitude and very limited skills".

With over 30 years of experience in the outdoor industry and a career that has involved senior positions at major companies, including Lowe Alpine, Mammut Sport Group and Berghaus, Mark Held was one of the founders of the European Outdoor Group (EOG) in 2003, which had the clear objective of uniting the fragmented outdoor industry by encouraging and facilitating collaboration on projects for the good of the whole sector. The EOG’s agenda covers key areas such as research, events, sustainability, responsibility, outreach, product safety and the promotion of participation in outdoor activities. In 2005, Mark agreed to take on the management of the EOG and became General Secretary, a role he has fulfilled ever since. Mark is actively involved in all areas of the sector and in addition to being the EOG General Secretary, he is also a Vice President of the Federation of European Outdoor Sporting Goods Industries (FESI) and acting Chairman of Fair Wear Foundation.   

“I always look forward to the Awards Jury meeting, partly due to the excitement seeing what new products are being launched, but also because the people, the place and the organization make the event a really positive thing to be part of.”

After many years of design experience in the fashion industry, Alexa Dehmel decided to make use of her passion for sports and become a freelance designer for functional clothing in 1996, followed by the foundation of her own agency with employees in 2005. Even today, it is still a positive challenge for her and her team to develop good products and collections for the mountain, water, fitness and performance sports and workwear sectors. A further milestone is planned for 2020: A globally unique innovation, competence and training center for functional clothing in the Munich area.

Interview with Alexa Dehmel: "Munich to get a unique expertise center for functional clothing"

Louisa Smith forecasts up to three years in advance in all sectors of the textile chain, from fiber to final garment. Louisa’s vision and research, monitoring textile developments through to global affairs, has a bearing on delivering the right textile developments. Louisa is also involved in developing the mega trends and textile trend directions for ISPO Textrends.

Tom Wilson-North is the head of the winter operation at Chamonix's iconic freeride shop Zero G, and senior snowboard writer for the pan-European BoardsportSOURCE B2B journal. He is married with two children.

"ISPO Award is one of our first chances to really understand the highlights of next season's gear. The meeting of minds and wealth of experience amongst jury members always leaves me inspired, and the exchanges during panel sessions are well-informed, opinionated, heated and passionate... exactly as they should be“.

Dr. Jun-Yan Hu is Chief Technology Officer at Best Pacific International Holdings Limited, Technical committee member of the Standardization Administration of China and External Ph. D. Student Supervisor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research interests cover functional products development and performance evaluation, standard development and technology transfer. Jun-Yan is listed as inventor in 38 patents granted around the world and received various innovative products awards. Since 2011, he is also a member of several National Technical Committees on Textiles and Material Characterization, which is part of the standardization administration committee in China.

Astrid Schlüchter graduated from ESMOD fashion school in Munich and gained her first professional experience as a PR consultant in the fashion and sports sector. The enthusiastic mountaineer is a freelance journalist for a variety of renowned online and print publications focusing on lifestyle, fashion, sports, and trade. In addition, she has been supporting the magazines “Sportfachhandel“, “Wanderlust“, “Ski Magazin“, and “Snow“ published by Sportcombi as a freelancer for the past couple of years. 

Maximillian Praxenthaler has a personal and professional passion for Outdoor sports. Originally from Bavaria, he moved to Berlin six years ago.

“For someone raised in the mountains, the urban lifestyle is sometimes pretty tough but also very inspiring. My job allows me to frequently go back to the mountains. I am super excited about changes, because I believe that our industry needs progression at all stages. Therefore, I’m really looking forward to ISPO.”

Urs Weber competed in numerous races, ran more than 50 marathons, short-distance and Ironman triathlon events, has been testing running shoes and equipment for over 20 years and has been working as an editor for specialty equipment at Runner's World Germany for more than ten years.

"The ISPO Award is the litmus test for the sporting goods industry. Whoever succeeds here is probably also successful on the market. Developments in the sports industry have shown that the winners are highly relevant in their respective sub-markets – as technological pioneers, design icons or trend products.“

René Gorissen joined SportScheck in 2013, where he is currently responsible for Sport Performance for Men and Women in the Category Management. The father of two children enjoys various sports on a regular basis, including fitness, functional training, hiking, cycling, golf, skiing and ski touring. He also finished several marathons.

"SportScheck, as a large multi-channel retailer, aims to provide its customers with the latest innovations. The ISPO Award is certainly a driving factor for companies to keep up the development and improvement of their products.“

With more than 20 years of professional experience as business consultant for sport and fitness facilities, as a researcher in health and prevention as well as head of the German industrial association for fitness and health (DIFG e.V.) Prof. Dr. Niels Nagel is an expert in the fitness industry. Moreover, he used to be a member of the national Triathlon team for 4 years and successfully participated in national and international championships. To this very day sports and fitness keep being fundamentals of his daily routine.

„It is competition that drives the continuous improvement of active individuals as well as enterprises in the sport industry. It is important to me to have an eye on keeping the focus of innovation on sustainable benefit and well-being of the trainee.“

Aleks Tatic is a product designer and founder of the agency Tatic Designstudio in Milan. After his studies at the Art Center College of Design in the USA and in Switzerland, he specialized on sports & lifestyle products and tools at various European firms. He then led the Italian design studio „Attivo Creative Resource“ to international success for twelve years. Today, with his multicultural team of designers and product specialists, he designs and develops a wide range of highly ergonomic products.

Dr. Jun-Yan Hu is Chief Technology Officer at Best Pacific International Holdings Limited, Technical committee member of the Standardization Administration of China and External Ph. D. Student Supervisor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research interests cover functional products development and performance evaluation, standard development and technology transfer. Jun-Yan is listed as inventor in 38 patents granted around the world and received various innovative products awards. Since 2011, he is also a member of several National Technical Committees on Textiles and Material Characterization, which is part of the standardization administration committee in China.

Yara Pastrelli Kamada is head of the group fitness department and co-responsible for ELEMENTS Fitness und Wellness in Germany, a subsidiary of Migros/Switzerland, and is always up-to-date. Trends in the fitness sector influence her and her creativity just as much as the latest developments and products of the entire sports industry.

„I am very happy to be part of the jury, because my passion is sports, exercise, water – simply everything that has to do with an active life."

To balance her everyday IT job, Shida Pourhosseini has been a yoga instructor for athletes for many years. She focuses on incorporating yoga into the schedule and training program of professional soccer players, swimmers, triathletes and tennis players. Because  yoga is not a performance-based process, it's a challenge for her to convince athletes to accept yoga as recovery or stability training and show them the long-term benefits. Shida is currently publishing a book on yoga/Blackroll® training for athletes. She is always interested in new developments that have the potential to become part of her training with athletes.

With a background of brand management in the cycling industry and has spent the last 6 years documenting, testing and shooting running products, James has a deep understanding between marketing hype and true innovation. An active trail and ultra runner, he competes across the UK in races, alongside freelancing for brands as an adventure sports photographer.

"I'm honored to return for a second year to work with leading experts in their fields, to share my passion, learn from others.“

Marcus Trute joined Keller Sports in January 2015 as COO focusing on logistics and purchase. Originally, the 42 year old launched his career as a buyer with Sport Förg. After 5 years in offline retail, he switched to manufacturing, working for several years with Head as a sales- and marketing lead for racquet sports. In total, Marcus has been working for more than 20 years in the sports industry gaining knowledge in offline retail, manufacturing and sports e-commerce. Active sports participation is a major in his leisure time and includes skiing, cross fit, family time in the mountains, tennis, ice hockey and golf.

„I am happy to see products, concepts and ideas at an early stage and to assess the innovational aspect of the products.“

Daniela Wenzel has been a personal and group fitness trainer in Frankfurt for almost 20 years. Her speciality is 4D movement and the rehabilitation of a biomechanically efficient posture. Daniela herself does gymnastics and movement training as well a Yoga. Additionally she practices the Wim Hof method and was participant at Ninja Warrior Germany in 2016. 

„My passion is to inspire people and support them in their development. This is the reason why I started my blog „abbysh“ (www.abbysh.com), which is constantly growing and has 30.000 followers on Instagram by now.“

Daniela Wenzels video portrait: https://abbysh.com

Mei is an independent consultant based in Germany with a mission to connect ambitious partners from China and Europe, to build new sport brands on a global scale and bringing together brands from different cultures. Currently she is the brand lead for FEISHEN Group, building up a kids mobility brand, together with sports design thinkers from Germany, to empower next generation of sport enthusiasts.

“China can benefit so much from the extensive sport network and know-how in Europe. We all support ISPO’s mission to accelerate sports and this exciting exchange!”