Showdown at the battle of the sports start-ups

More than 100 promising start-ups presented themselves and their products in the Brandnew Area. At the ISPO Brandnew Founders Fights the most exciting start-ups competed against each other in four categories. "They came together to find out what the world needs in sports, fitness and performance," said Jan C. Küster, Co-Founder & Director of the Founders Fight Club.

The start-ups didn't fight with their fists, of course, but with arguments. The task for the start-ups was to present themselves perfectly in one minute and defend themselves against their competitors in another. They also had to answer questions from a jury led by tennis pro Mischa Zverev. The audience decided the winners of each category and round by voting.

A special experience for juror Mischa Zverev. "ISPO Munich is like a Disneyland for adults," said the tennis pro. "There is so much to see here. Things you need and things you never thought you'd ever need. But the most important thing is the cool people."

Speaking of cool people: some of the start-up fighters dressed up in imaginative outfits for their pitches. The Reflective Man from REFLECTIVE Stickies in Berlin will definitely be remembered by the audience. Even if the start-up didn't make it to the final.

But there could only be one. One category winner - and then one overall winner. In the end, Haelixa came out on top as the well-deserved overall winner. "It's such a cool atmosphere here and there are so many innovations. The fact that we were chosen is something special," said a delighted Holly Berger from Haelixa about her win.

At Haelixa, a DNA marker is dissolved in a liquid and applied directly to the raw material. It is designed to withstand industrial textile processing. The marker is invisible to the naked eye and does not affect the properties or quality of the product. This makes it easy to trace products in complex global textile supply chains.

In addition to Healixa, which had won the Sustainability category before its overall win, there were other fascinating start-ups on the podium.

The ArcX Smart Ring won the Performance category. It is a new kind of wearable technology - a thumb-operated micro-joystick remote control for smartphones, sports cameras, wireless speakers, timing systems and any other Bluetooth device.

The outdoor category was won by the Qwicklane ski touring binding. The state-of-the-art ski touring binding with automatic height adjustment for climbing aids enables ski tourers to effortlessly adjust the height of their climbing aids with a simple click on a remote control.

Movmenta won the Technology category with SOLLO. SOLLO is a patented technology that uses nanosensors in running shoes to measure the development of sole absorption and supination-pronation behavior. The system is fully integrated and weighs only 1.5 grams. Runners can optimize their shoe use and reduce their risk of injury with a corresponding app.

In the ISPO Brandnew Founders Fights, the participating start-ups at ISPO Munich 2023 once again demonstrated the innovative power of the sports industry. "When you see the innovations on display at ISPO Munich and how diverse the solutions of the participating start-ups were, you can really look forward to the future of the sports industry," said Christoph Rapp from ISPO Group at the end of a fantastic competition.