Sport and wellness
This sector concerns all economic stakeholders in sport (businesses, sports federations, etc.) and sports equipment suppliers.
Carnot Institutes strongly involved
Examples of partnerships with companies in the sector
As children’s feet stretch, Decathlon and Carnot ARTS Institute rethink the way shoes are designed
Partnership ARTS Carnot Institute - DecathlonThe strong technical collaboration has helped reduce the risk of injury among junior tennis players without altering performances.
As children’s feet stretch, Decathlon and Carnot ARTS Institute rethink the way shoes are designed
Supporting Innovation
For 40 years, Decathlon R&D teams have been challenging many of the pre-conceived notions to create high-value products, whose guarantee of exclusiveness paves the way to their commercial success.
Based on the observations of its SportsLab, Decathlon innovates with a new type of ‘tennis shoe’ for kids.
Contrary to the competition’s custom, which considers kid’s shoes as mini adult shoes, Decathlon was, as a result, able to design a tennis shoe best suited to the kid’s feet development.
In partnership with LAMIH*, one of Carnot ARTS Institute’s lab, and the ISM**, a component of the STAR Carnot Institute, Decathlon has monitored 30 junior tennis players over an entire playing season.
The ideal footwear design could be established based on the behaviour, on the one hand, of the players fitted with the new shoes, and on the other hand, on the ground impact characteristics of the shoes during the play more particularly.
* France-based Laboratory of Industrial and Human Automation control, Mechanical engineering and Computer Science (Laboratoire d'Automatique, Mécanique, Informatique, industrielles et Humaines)
** Institute of Human Movement Sciences, (Institut des Sciences du Mouvement) based at Aix-Marseille University (AMU)
The client needs
Decathlon has been built on its capacity to set itself apart from the competition trough innovation. Its ambition is to allow the greatest number of players to pursue sport and physical activities in optimal safety conditions.
Decathlon R&D teams complement their studies built around high-level scientific inflows from external laboratories through parternships.
On the basis of a CIFRE*** doctoral thesis, Decathlon has thus been able to study and model individual gestures and multiply modelling to their prototyping.
Measurements on the young players make it possible to validate physiological constraints and maximise convenience for users, without affecting their performances.
Such technological advance is crucial for Decathlon, which targets a market with high growth potential despite stiff competition, and reinforces its position as the preferred company for French customers ahead of Amazon.
In France, tennis is the most important individual sport with more than 524,000 regular licensed players aged 18 or younger****.
***CIFRE = Industrial Agreement of Training through Research (Doctoral fellowships program)
**** Source FFT http://www.fft.fr/fft/missions/quelques-chiffres
Partnership
LAMIH aims at studying the relationship between humans and systems.
Fostering interactions and agents, laboratory of the ARTS Carnot Institute is also able to analyse, model and simulate human movements.
LAMIH has provided Decathlon a recognized expertise in data-processing and analysis of movement kinematics and dynamics.
Physiological readings have not been averaged using common practice. All specific cases, on the contrary, were examined to extend the statistical data subjects.
Installed at Valenciennes university’s campus, geographically close to Decathlon SportsLab’s teams, LAMIH has provided its foremost resources with a view to supporting the group’s strategy for innovation.
With 80,000 employees in 2017, Decathlon operates globally and saw an 11% increase in sales.
Photo - Source Decathlon SportsLab
Through the STAR Carnot Institute, science meets amateur and pro football players
Partnership STAR Carnot Institute & WizwedgeWith the support of The Carnot Institute of Sport Science a passionate entrepreneur gives players a fair advantage with its newly launched customisable and high-performance shoe while keeping them safe from injury.
Through the STAR Carnot Institute, science meets amateur and pro football players
Supporting Innovation
Shoes with a customisable design aimed at improving specific sporting activities are current trend. The technique often involves moulding a sole as a carbon copy of the player’s own footprint for better postural balance and ideal comfort. The Wizwedge shoe concept offers an innovative technology mixing ergonomics with customisable options, where a partly removable Wedge, a component of the outer sole, a so-called technological space, adapts to each individual.
The instant hit with professional male and female football players laid out a concrete basis for the brand to open its first online store. Amateur football players can now benefit from biomechanical features for cushion, medium or dynamic exercises.
The client needs
Wizwedge has stemmed from the talent and interest of Jean-Luc Guer, an experienced football player. As far as he is concerned, the shoe is one of the major elements holding the key to the player’s footballing skills. Turned podiatrist, Jean-Luc Guer keeps contact with top athletes, while trying to develop and upgrade such outdated gear. He regularly tests and strives to improve his concept that would result in a shoe featuring the WedgeBox®, holding the removable Wedge. Once clarified, Jean-Luc Guer had to determine the ideal shape of the sole for perfect posture, improved balance and stability, to prevent injuries, at the same time, enable better performance. Located in Marseilles, the SME can make use of the Laboratory of Applied Biomechanics’ resources for his incisive analysis. Such co-operation has been awarded the First Prize for Sport & Health Innovation 2016.
Partnership
The STAR Carnot Institute places 8 Research units in the same organisational grouping revolving around sport, health and wellness. Among these, the Laboratory of Applied Biomechanics (LAB) provides researchers with a cross-cutting and multidisciplinary approach between Engineering Science and Medicine. Beside the usual aspects of the human body, the LAB investigates prevention and rehabilitation of traumatic injuries. It made therefore absolute sense for the LAB teams to get involved by endorsing the Wizwedge concept. All relevant platforms were made available to the SME to conduct studies, i.e. bone vibration frequencies during typical exercise regimens, human motion captures and numerical simulations. The LAB has carried out static and dynamic postural behaviors of all types of football players. Through his business expertise, the LAB has managed to determine the characteristics of one of the biomechanical elements able to respond to the various types of practices. The OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer), for its part, can build upon such positive results by expanding innovative products from a fairly restricted distribution network into more appropriately priced lines fully accessible to amateurs.
