Infobit #6: "ForMotion" Technology

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After doing more personal research on materials, fabrics, and various other clothing technologies, I discovered an interesting technology that is being used by Adidas. Below is a summary of the article.

Adidas has released a new clothing technology called "ForMotion" that improves comfort and enhances performance by combining several different fabrics with different properties in a shaped garment. ForMotion garments are designed to enhance athletes' movements in three specific types of sports: Linear sports such as running, where the focus is on forward motion; Lateral sports, such as tennis, where the focus is on upper body rotation and quickness; And the Helix movements of football/soccer, where the focus is on lower body power and movement. The ForMotion concept utilises a combination of: compression fabrics in sport-specific body locations to control & enhance muscle activity to assist the athlete maintain proper form; and sculpted cuts and three-dimensional engineering to boost athletic freedom of movement.

I found this technology rather interesting because one of the aspects that we want our final shirt to be is highly comfortable (this is one of the things that Under Armor struggles with). Additionally we need our shirts to remain stationary so that during practice the shirt will not ride up and prevent proper resistance. This particular technology and cut caught my attention while I was doing research on various fabrics and i figured we could potentially adapt Adidas concept to fit what we are looking to do.

Full article found here

Individual Blog Posting #6: Exciting Progress This Week!

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The progress we made with NYX this week I felt was rather good. I really enjoy working with this particular team - we all seem to get a long and have fun while simultaneously accomplishing our work in a timely fashion.

We conducted our second board meeting this past Thursday with all of our board members in attendance. I would first like to say that Casey did a fabulous job of organizing and hosting the meeting. In our very first board of advisers meeting we made some good progress with respect to developing the prototype; however, several of our advisers left our first meeting unclear as to exactly what our short-term and long-term objectives were.

In our second meeting we really made an effort to get our board members connected by giving a quick tutorial on Blogger (that way they can comment and stay up-to-date with how things are progressing). Additionally we clarified some of our objectives and what we expected from our board of advisors. Overall it was a great getting everyone on the same page moving towards our goal of getting our first prototype made.

In addition to having a productive week with our advisory board, we also made some great headway with our prototype (check out the pictures here). It's been a slow process, but with the help of Erin and Barb (one of our advisors), we have started to experiment with our first "Ghetto Mash-up". Casey has been doing a marvelous job of organizing and putting together our prototype.

Finally, as a team we had our weekly meeting on Friday and managed to accomplish our Key Strategic Resources, our Key Partners, and our key tasks that need to be accomplished over the next six months. Overall we had a highly productive week. Hopefully the momentum we made this week will carry into the next week.

Info Bit #6 Senior's Market

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Seniors Market- Our population is aging quickly which is different market that Nyx could look into in the future.

http://www.seniorfitness.com/

http://www.seniorfitness.net/

Seniors fitness is a growing trend because of aging population along with all of the information that we have received around how exercise can improve life expectancy, quality of life and overall health. This is a market that Nyx should look into in the future. This would be a more "toned down" resistant shirt as they would need less strength and more general exercise. As well seniors build muscle slower and become sore easier. In order to get into this market would have to consult with numerous different individuals including doctors, occupational therapist and physiotherapist.

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Advisory Board Meeting II Minutes

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Date: October 27, 2011

Time: 9:30-11:00 am

Where: EB 2061

Attending:

Erik (Advisory Board Member)

Jonathan (Advisory Board Member)

Barb (Advisory Board Member)

Jim (Advisory Board Member)

Freddie (Advisory Board Member)

Christa (Team Member)

Casey (Team Member)

Ian (Team Member)

Matt (Team Member)

Colby (Team Member)

Agenda:

1. Blog Tutorial

2. Advisor Expectations:

3. What NYX has been up to:

a. Prototype development and strategy

i. Erin’s assistance

ii. Ghetto mash up -> Minimally working -> Concierge

iii. Where we are now

b. Demand Creation Plan:

i. Trainer conferences

4. Parking Lot:

a. Distribution strategy

b. Flat seam sewing machines

c. Will the prototype function?

5. What NYX is up to:

a. Costs

b. Distribution

c. Key Partners and resources

d. Prototype Development

6. Open up to discussion and feedback

7. Conclusion

Action Items:

- Further development of prototype (Casey)

-Determine objectives for the end of the semester (Team)

-Put course outline and research paper under new tap on blog for advisors (Matt and Colby)

-Talk to trainers about demand creation plan (Team)

-Bring in fabric swatches (Casey)

Summary:

Matt delivered a quick explanation on how the advisors could use the blog effectively and efficiently. It was decided that there would be a new tab put onto the blog so the advisors had some additional information that would help them assist us. We then discussed what we expected from the advisors, explaining we wanted their expertise and experience. Jim expressed concern about what was hypothetical and we were actually expected to do. The team expressed that we too were struggling with this, and will try harder to communicate.

We showed the board the first prototype design that was developed with the help of Erin, our U of C kinesiology contact. As well a giving a brief description of our types of prototype (Ghetto mashup and minimally working). We then discussed our demand creation plan and our new development of focusing on trainers of elite athletes.

We discussed the items that we had put into the "parking lot" last meeting. Freddie told us about a flat seam sewing machine that a contact has, but we must have a "solid" working prototype. This will be helpful in the future. We discussed that we will be working on our costs very soon and be able to bring the advisors numbers.

Overall the meeting was good at identifying what is required from all stakeholders.

Fabric Innovations for Global Sustainability

Posted by Casey - 2 comments

Source: Ted Talks: Suzanne Lee: Grow your own clothes

Website: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/suzanne_lee_grow_your_own_clothes.html

Suzanne Lee has created a new “fabric” from micro organisms and bacteria. Although it is not a complete recipe and there are issues with the fabric such as unable to be waterproofed, there are many attractive qualities.

There is no waste and the leftovers are biodegradable. Treatment and coloring is very easy and does not require chemical treatment. This is an environmentally friendly product and offers a sustainable solution to the current textiles market. Besides the sustainability characteristics the biggest feature is the ability to manipulate the fabric. Suzanne suggests that this fabric will not always have a fashion focus and that it may be altered to fit other purposes like furniture, housing and automobiles.

This is relevant to NYX not because I would choose this fabric as something to build athletic clothing from but as an example to how important innovation is even within an established industry. If this fabric became a popular and important material we might require designers to work with this process and create our own line to stay competitive. Trend analysis will keep an elite brand like NYX in the elite market.

Week 6

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This week we worked on our key resources and partnerships. It became apparent that there are stages of development throughout NYX’s start-up phase that will need different partners. We decided to take a current and future approach to help us focus on what is important now.

This week I will be meeting with Barb to further design and create a minimally working prototype. This prototype will target the muscles we are focusing on and will be a great stepping stone for further development of the prototype. Although this prototype will be basic it will be important in the development of NYX and our testing and learning process and we move into the minimally working prototype stage.

This week we met with the advisory board. The meeting went well and thank you to our advisors for your support.

Next week Ian and I are looking to meet with a connection that our advisor Freddie has suggested. This individual has experience in the athletic fabrics industry and we are hoping to get some feedback for our prototype. This will hopefully also help to develop a realistic cost plan in the future.

Week 5

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I will be facilitating the meeting next week so this week I am preparing to address the advisors. I will be covering what we have done, where we are going and outlining in what ways we would like the advisors to help the NYX team. This includes a description of the blog, how they are to use the blog and an outline of NYX’s expectations.

I am beginning to build the prototype and am still currently in the design process. Ian will be our model and initial customer for the shirt. I will be measuring him for fit and noting the muscles we are targeting. I will use this information to create a hand drawn sketch to build upon. We are currently exploring our options for a computer designed prototype. We would use a computer based prototype to help explain our product to individuals who cannot see the physical prototype.

Individual Blog Post

Posted by Colby Sawatzky - 0 comments

Working on the development of the Prototype.

Freddy from our advisory board has helped us out hugely with this. Whether its from finding a flat seemer to sew our product together or material we will need to use. He has lots of expertise in this area. This will help us out a lot as we put together our final costs of the shirt.

Week #6. We keep truckin'.

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This week has been much more productive then last. We had our second Advisory meeting, a week later then we were supposed to but we felt like we needed that time to get organized and make greater strides with our prototype. The meeting was very productive, especially to make it more explicit of what we want from them. It was also interesting to see the dynamic of the different advisory board members grow and to see some of the become more confident. Although no issues arouse I feel like we are starting to move past the storming phase of a team development on to a norming phase.

The greatest thing I got out of the meeting is very clearly determining our objectives and set very explicit rules of what is real and what is hypothetical. This point was brought by Jim. Jim has a lot of hands on experience with starting businesses and was having a hard time determining what was real and what was not. He felt if this was a real venture the first issue we would have to address would be financing. Although this is not how we will be facing this project it is a very important thing to be aware of when I do start my own business.

Individual Blog Posting #5: Midterms...

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This week has been productive in someways and as Christa mentioned in her most recent posting, very unproductive in other respects. From a research standpoint I've made some very good headway this week. I actually ran into an old friend this weekend (Mark Jones) who in the last two years I discovered has started up a relatively successful clothing company. He actually recommended a number of good manufacturers and basically offered to help us once we've gone through our prototyping and testing.

As for the status of our prototype, we were rather unproductive in making headway this week. I think for our whole team this particular week was the busiest thus far (I personally had 3 midterms in 2 days). However, I am confident that this coming week will be a step in the right direction. It's imperative we get our "Ghetto Mash-up" made by the end of October so that we can begin doing our initial testing.

Infobit #5: Self Cooling Fabric

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One of the features we've talked about adding to our NYX shirts for quite some time now is some form of cooling fabric. However, prior to this particular article I stumbled upon, we were unsure if this particular technology existed and exactly how it worked.

According to Uniform Product News (a website that tracks new clothing trends), Columbia Sportswear has created a revolutionary new fabric that contains a chemical compound that adjusts the temperature of the shirt to the temperature of the environment. When the fabric is wet, the flat fibers produce a cooling effect. Essentially when the shirt is washed, the chemical compound is recharged. However, the only drawback with the current technology is that it only lasts for 70 washes.

Although this particular technology is far from being perfected, it is interesting to see that technologically advanced clothing is becoming a new trend.

Checkout the article here

Week #5. Life is bogging us down.

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This week has not been very productive. This is due to many different things. It is mid-term season and at least three of us had a major finance midterm on Wednesday. We have all been a little distracted and not having as much focus on our project as we should have. For our weekly meeting all four of us had either appointments, car troubles or just unexpected things come up, so we didn't end up meeting. As well we are stuck on making the prototype, but really we should be moving forward with other factors that are important. Such as contacting the University of Calgary’s Human Performance Lab. I also heard someone mention that Mount Royal is opening a human performance lab, I am hoping to use my various connections at Mount Royal to set up a meeting, if it even exists. This week has taught me that there will be weeks that not are not very productive, but you can’t let that stop you from moving forward. Life will always have hurdles that will come up, you just need to power though and keep moving forward.

Info Bit #5...Hot Pants!

Posted by Anonymous - 2 comments

Hot Pants- heat inducing compression pants that have the ability to make you lose 2 jean sizes in 2 weeks.

http://zaggora.com/

Hot pants would be one of Nyx's alternative competitors, as they are a piece of clothing that is promising weight loss. From what I can gather, Hot Pants uses heat inducing compression material in shorts that is supposed to "reduce body fat and visible cellu-lite". They claim this will be achieved through increasing the body heat and therefore the amount of perception . I am not sure how well this will work, but it maybe a technology or idea we may want to integrate into Nyx at a later point.

Individual Blog Post

Posted by Colby Sawatzky - 0 comments

Since other group members have been tied down with other classes, I decided to book an appointment with Katija (head athletic therapist Mount Royal). Since I am a Mount Royal Soccer Alumni it was easy to get an appointment, as I personally know Tija. All I wanted to get from this meeting was her view on the idea, and what she though could be improved on etc.

From this meeting I gathered:

1. integration of bands into a shirt can be very difficult as the bands will need anchor points along the shirt.
2. Possible integration of weights into the shirt. Usage of weights may have a better effect on this idea. Easier to incorporate.
3. Gathering empirical results will be important to establish a working product.

I have passed these very good suggestions onto the team.

Individual Blog Post

Posted by Colby Sawatzky - 0 comments

Body mapping has been completed! This was the most important part in order to develop a proper prototype. The team has decided that we will only target the core with this prototype in order to hit as many sports as possible. It doesn't matter what sport you play, core is used and very important. From this first prototype, Nyx will be able to expand and target more specific sports through adding on to this prototype.

Week 4: Individual Post

Posted by Casey - 1 comments

This week’s focus for our team was around prototype and minimum viable approach development. As mentioned previously, our strategy is to start small and grow as our knowledge and understanding furthers.

The first prototype was constructed this week and it is definitely a “ghetto mash-up”. We met with a kinesiology student from University of Calgary (Erin) to help us with this development. Erin provided knowledge that our team does not have. She was able to help us to body map muscle groups on the body that we want NYX to target. Big thanks to Erin for her help!

This simple prototype is important to the growth of the NYX’s design because it will start us off in the right direction for our future designs. It would only set NYX back in identity, time and money to have to redevelop a prototype that was claimed finished, tested and failed.

This week I will be in contact with our advisor Barb in regards to design strategies based upon this first prototype. I will be researching fabrics and materials that are available for NYX’s use in building the next stage of prototype; the working prototype.

Week 3: Individual Post

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This week we met with our advisory board. We received a lot of feedback in regards to our prototype. Many of the advisors felt that this will be a make or break for NYX in order to prove the feasibility of our product. Based on this feedback we have decided to focus a little more energy into the prototype design and produce it in stages to get the best results.

During our Friday meeting a marketing strategy was developed for our first and second years of operation. We decided to focus on professional sport team’s trainers. Involving them in our sales process will give us an advantage over competition because it will promote the use of our product within teams. We hope that this will help to encourage brand power, development of the product and initiate a strong first movers advantage to keep out the competition.

Something our team finds challenging is keeping our meetings and ideas relevant to where we are with our development of NYX. We are all dreamers and like to plan above and beyond what is needed for this stage of NYX. We are learning to keep a tight focus during our meetings.

In the upcoming weeks I will be working towards further developing the prototype. The plan is to start small and build in complexity as I learn about products, fabrics and the competition.

Info Bit: Established Business Practices Not Adding Up

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Source: Ted Talks: Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation

Website: http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html

Dan Pink discusses business methods and motivation versus scientific findings on motivation. When compared are they adding up?

Several scientific studies on motivation have proven that the higher the incentives the less effective are the results. This is especially true in rudimentary cognitive skills. The larger the tangible rewards the smaller are the results. Large tangible rewards do not foster an entrepreneurial mindset or creative environment.

Dan Pink’s solution to this old school method of motivation is to offer employees autonomy. If you pay people accordingly and money is no longer the issue a company is able to offer autonomy. This autonomy method of management is starting to be seen in companies like Google and contributes to their innovative nature. Dan discusses the ROWE method. It leaves employees to decide for themselves how and when they will complete their jobs. It does not matter as long as the work gets completed. These types of environments create heightened productivity and creativity and lead to more innovative businesses.

As young aspiring entrepreneurs it is important for us not only to recognize trends in business and technology but also in management and company cultures and ownerships.

Info Bit: Green Funeral Alternatives

Posted by Casey - 0 comments

Source: Ted Talks: Jae Rhim Lee: My mushroom burial suit

Website: http://www.ted.com/talks/jae_rhim_lee.html

Jae Rhim Lee discusses a solution to burial and environmental issues in regards to cycling toxins from our dead bodies back into the earth.

When we die all of the toxins that our bodies hold are decomposed and placed back into the earth to continue their cycle. The solution that Jae Rhim suggests is to selectively breed mushrooms to recognize and eat an individual’s dead body. These mushrooms (infinity mushrooms) will end the cycle of the toxins since they naturally remove toxins on their own.

Jae Rhim sees this opportunity as a new way to see death and to lessen the environmental footprint that humans leave on the planet. It is her solution to becoming responsible for our own impacts on the planet.

She has developed suit and capsule dealing with mushroom spores to spread over a dead body to start the decomposition process. The plan is to have these prototypes perfected within the next couple years and has volunteers who are donating their bodies to her research.

The business plan is built around body decompiculture and toxin remediation. This is not only a practice but a society in which people can donate their dead bodies to this research and development of this opportunity in search for a more responsible death.

This Ted Talk is important because it stresses two themes. The first is the identification of an ongoing issue (going green) in an established industry. Jae Rhim is altering the funeral service industry. The second trend is the fact that she is an artist and not an engineer or business professional. Entrepreneurship and new opportunities are not built by only these working professionals. They are built from passionate innovative people.

Infobit #3: Netflix Stock Falls after change in pricing

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After discussing in class about RIM's current situation and their failure to pivot as a company, I stumbled across some recent news regarding Netflix. According to the New York Times, Netflix has decided to separate their through the mail DVD rental service from their online streaming service. Prior to these changes DVD-by-mail was a $2 add-on for some streaming subscribers; now, each service now costs $8. Entering July Netflix had 22 million subscribers to the streaming service, 12 million of whom would also opt for the DVD-by-mail service. With the separation of the two services and the price hike, Netflix has seen a loss of 800,000 DVD-by-mail subscribers along with 200,000 streaming subscribers. The loss in net income has seen the Netflix stock drop by 15% and has been slow to recover over the past few months.

I found this particular article to be rather interesting given that in class we've discussed on several occasions the concept of pivoting. This particular case will be interesting to monitor and see whether or not Netflix made the right decision to pivot or if they would have been better off to stick with their previous strategy.

Check out the link Here

Infobit #4: Nanotube Technology Could Be The Answer For NYX

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According to BBC news, scientists have been exploring a new technology called Nanotubes. These carbon nanotubes are "straws" made only of atoms of carbon linked together in hexagons. These fibers are dipped in an electrolyte - a fluid containing ions, electrically charged atoms. When a voltage is applied at the ends of the yarns, these ions move into the fibers, causing them to expand. According to the article, this technology mimics the action of of muscles found in elephant trunks and squid tentacles.

This particular article was fascinating and extremely relevant to our particular project. This new technology could potentially answer many of the design questions that we are facing. One of the main issues we were struggling with was how we were going to create resistance for the arms (or if it would be smarter to only focus on the chest, back, and upper body). The honeycomb idea is a really interesting one because it could be used throughout the entire shirt and create support. Although we wouldn't necessarily be using the fibers to generate an electric charge, the concept of flexible carbon fiber is something that caught my attention at a first glance.

Check out the full article Here

Info Bit #4 Nano-tube Power

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Nanotube Power- DC energy is produced by slingshotting electrons through a carbon nanotube. It is a small technology then a normal battery.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_nanotube

http://www.nanocyl.com/CNT-Expertise-Centre/Carbon-Nanotubes

Nanotube is an innovation that allows for smaller batteries. This is an amazing innovation for many different things: cellphones, laptops and medical technologies. Further research and development is needed to implement the technology as well as ensuring the safety of the technology.

Info Bit # 3 Lifestraw

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LifeStraw- For $3, 700 litres of water can be filter to be drinkable. This innovation could change the lives of millions of people.

http://www.vestergaard-frandsen.com/lifestraw

Vestergaard Frandsen is a Disease Control Textiles company that has developed an amazing new innovation that could change the lives of numerous lives. The LifeStraw is a small hand held device that an individual uses to drink dirty water, but as they suck up the straw the water will be cleaned and become safe to drink. This is an amazing innovation that could decrease disease and parasites. These innovations are usually targeted at non-profit organizations, but I feel a social entrepreneur do more and reach more people.

Individual Blog Post #4: Prototyping & Networking

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Last night I attended my second "Evening With Innovators"; however, instead of having to pitch like last time it was a nice to be there in support of other fellow students and practice my networking skills. I found the event to be highly productive personally and with respect to our project for this semester.

At the beginning of the event things were a little awkward but as the night progressed it became rather easy to start up a conversation and move around the room. Many times I found myself in the middle of a conversation with several guests. It was amazing how much I learned in such a short period of time by simply listening to many of these individuals talk to each other about their own businesses and experiences. For example, I learned a great deal about grants and licensing through my discussions with Kip. After my experience this evening I definitely see the importance of networking.

Probably the most important individual that I met with respect to NYX was a fellow by the name of Oliver. Oliver owns his own custom suit company (Charlie & Co) and has some great connections with overseas manufacturing which will be useful in the future when we are looking to start manufacturing. The other individual that provided a great deal of insight after I pitched our idea was Jeff Robinson (he does business consulting). Jeff suggested that rather than initially targeting high performance athletes, another possible market could be the physiotherapy industry. Jeff pointed out that a shirt like the one we are looking at developing would be a great tool for helping individuals through rehabilitation. He also mentioned that we could potentially get a government grant due to the fact that it would be designed for physiotherapy.

Based on some of the knowledge gained from last nights event, we plan on tackling our initial prototype this week. Tomorrow Ian, Casey, and Christa are going to be meeting up with a 4th year kinesiology student from the U of C to help with the mapping of the micro muscles. The plan is to slap a white shirt on Ian and together the girls are going to map out with a colored marker where the important muscle groups are so we can determine exactly where we are going to put concentrated resistance.

Once we've established the location of these muscle groups, our next step will be to begin the process of testing out different resistance methods. Much of this process will be trial and error. For this reason we will be doing most of our initial testing and modification on Ian before we take our prototype to a professional athlete for further testing.

I've also stumbled across some new technology that could potentially be used in our shirts that I will post as an infobit shortly.

Text Neck

Posted by Colby Sawatzky - 0 comments

Recent studies have shown that people who text message and use tablet computers are starting to affect their neck negatively by putting the spine and neck in a forward position.

The human head weighs between 10 and 12 pounds and is meant to be directly above the shoulders.

This forward movement of the neck and head can have huge negative affects such as: heart and lung difficulties, arthritis, and even digestive problems.

This is an interesting article because, the original idea behind NYX was to provide a shirt tailored to white collared individuals who don't get the necessary exercise they need each day. This could be something that NYX will be revisiting in the future, and maybe even look at proper posture.

Complete article: http://inventorspot.com/articles/another_health_hazard_caused_mobile_phone_use_text_neck

Individual Blog Post

Posted by Colby Sawatzky - 0 comments

We have put together our advisory board! It will consist of Barb (sewing expert), Jim (entrepreneur), Freddy (entrepreneur and clothing expert), Johnathon (IT Guru), and Eric (Marketing expert). This will be a great advisory board, as we have gotten a well rounded group here. I can not wait until our first board meeting and what we can accomplish with this group.

Two For the Price of One?

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the idea of getting two uses out of a single product is far from revolutionary but a company out of Germany has definitely been able to stretch our thinking of what that can actually mean. Twosquaremeter, a innovative clothing manufacturer that prides itself on its bio-friendly approach to textiles, has recently developed a seaweed/milk sweater. It is said that this sweater can not only wick away sweat and regulate body temperature, but can also nourish the skin of whoever is wearing it. In other words by simply putting on a garment you are able to moisturize and stay warm at the same time! now how many people would have pictured those two service coming out of the same product? its like Olay and Gap coming together into one shirt. Look out for other interesting combination's to come out of this German company in the future.

Sweat shop debate

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I recently stumbled upon this article while reading up on Canadian Business. It basically pushes the old debate of whether sweat shops being shut down are a good thing or a bad thing. It mentions that while cheap labour in sub par conditions compared to what is acceptable in western society is not a pretty site, especially for a PR campaign, it does however employ many local workers. These workers otherwise would not have the means to support their family, which in many of these areas are quite large.
The reason why it has been brough back into the limelight is because of the new Nike shoes that will be available f9or this Christmas season. They are created using a vacuum technology, which begs the question: are these shoes built by machines rather than people? if this is the case we will see a lot of unemployment in areas Nike has set up manufacturing plants.
This is a good topic to explore because for a company starting out, especially in clothing, they need to ask themselves if they would like to pay the high costs for machines that will eventually pay for themselves or to hire low cost labour abroad and have their product made by hand. This debate will continue until the day manufacturing can happen automatically without any human interaction, and so until then we have to pick a side.

http://www.canadianbusiness.com/blog/business_ethics/50576--a-high-tech-replacement-for-sweatshop-labour-um-yay

Week #4. Time to Prototype!

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On Friday we meet up with a close friend of mine, Erin Hildebrandt. She is a kinesiology student at the University of Calgary along with a trainer for hockey club within Calgary. She has lot of experience with athletes and training. In our meeting we described what our idea was, some issues we had and that we were hoping to build a prototype. The first question she had was what sport were we targeting. We then explained that we were going to start focusing on the core, as this is important in every sport and activity. At this point Erin drew on a white t-shirt that Ian was wearing of where she thought the bands would be best situated in order to give the best results. I have attached a picture of this happening.

One of the biggest worries that we have with our product is whether or not this would increase the risk of injury. One product that is a similar alternative is Core-Shorts. These shorts are designed to help athletes recover after and injury to their groin, hip or thigh. Some athletes develop dependence of this product and when they stop using it, them become injured because they have lost muscle mass due to the support that the Core Shorts provided. We asked Erin if she thought this would be an issue with our product. She said that it shouldn’t be because we are targeting certain muscles.

Week #3. Meeting and Growing

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In our third week of this course we had the opportunity to meet with our Advisory Board. On our Advisory Board we were able to get a vast array of skills that will come in handy for our venture. The individuals that we will be utilizing the most at this step of our venture, prototyping, are Freddy along with Barb. These individuals will be able to give great insight into what we require in order to develop a prototype that is functioning. The other three members will be able to help direct us with there various business skills. With years of experience with owning his own business Jim will be able to help us with the intricate details that we may other wise over look. Jonathan has skills in finance, graphic design and product development that we will be able to utilize. Erik has a large amount of experience in marketing. Overall I feel that our board is diverse and will really be able to help us to move forward with our venture.

The meeting ran fluidly. We have identified that our next goals are to build a prototype and get in contact with either the Human Performance Lab or another facility that will be able to help us get empirical results.

Individual Blog Posting #3: Good Advice

Posted by Anonymous - 1 comments

The past week has been rather interesting and productive. Our first advisory board meeting was extremely positive and shed valuable insight on our offering and the direction NYX should move towards.

The beginning of our meeting was slightly depressing due to the fact that our advisory board ripped into our idea and its feasibility. However, in hindsight it was a good wake-up call for our team to realize that we've reached a place where we really cannot move forward until we've proven the concept.

The remaining 80% of our meeting was spent discussing what our first MVP would look like and how we could efficiently and effectively build something workable that we could prove results with. Freddie (one of our advisory board members) actually owns and operates his own snowboard apparel company; his expertise during our first meeting was outstanding.

Initially we were planning on getting people from the general public to test and provide feedback on our initial prototype; however, Freddie made a great point stating, "Don't waste your time with the general public because they don't know anything - they believe what they are told - use professional athletes."

Freddie also brought up a great point regarding coreshorts and one of the things that he disliked about their technology. He pointed out the fact that coreshorts make it extremely difficult for an individual to contract their muscles due to the fact that the shorts keep constant pressure. With repeated use, an individuals muscles could actually become confused and there could be the potential for injury. For this reason Friddie suggested we use concentrated resistance that provides resistance only when there is movement.

Probably the biggest learning experience I took out of this meeting and so far out of this particular class is things look good on paper but need to be prototyped and tested well before complex features can be added. I think in a certain respect as a team we really wanted to walked before we learned how to crawl. I think we are all excited to stop talking about how the prototype will look and just go out and make something that kind of works and build upon it.

Robo-Rat

Posted by Colby Sawatzky - 1 comments

Neurological disorders may never be a problem again. Researchers have successfully implanted an electrode-studded computer into the brain of a rat. The rat previously was unable to move properly because of brain damage, but is now able to because of this computer that has essentially replaced the motor area of the brain by picking up sensory information from the rat's body. Once interpreted, the information is sent to the brain stem which signals the body to move. It works just like a real brain!

According to professor Matti Mintz who has conducted a study since the installation of this computer into the brain of the rat, says that when the computer is turned on the rat is able to blink, however, when turned off the rat is unable to blink.

This could be a huge step in the medical world as people who have been affected by neurological diseases, or even accidents; may be able to live a healthy nurse free life again.

For full article follow this link: http://inventorspot.com/articles/roborat_robotic_brain_successfully_implanted_mobility_impaired_r

Market Research: Soccer

Posted by Colby Sawatzky - 0 comments

In doing this customer research survey there were about 7 questions, involving both open ended and yes/no questions. The team chose these particular questions, as we felt it would give us the best bases on developing a proper prototype tailored to our direct market. The questions are:

1. How much would you pay?

2. Do you wear base layers already?

3. What sport do you play?

4. What kind of injuries do you deal with?

5. How important is quality vs. price?

6. What do you dislike about today’s offering?

7. How do they make you feel?

After analyzing all the answers I received from 10 different players, who all play in different positions, the conclusion is as follows. The price of Nyx according to these players state that the price needs to be competitive with what is currently out there. They all currently wear base layers to stay warm, as it is a fall sport that they play in, so they would need something to keep their core warm. Injuries they deal with include: shoulders, hip flexer, groin, hamstrings, ankles, quads. With this being said they all feel that a shirt that offers them core resistance would help them prevent injuries in the future. In terms of price, they would like to see a product that is competitive with what is currently out there in terms of price, but would like to see a product with higher quality and lasts longer. As to what they dislike about what is currently out there is that all products don't have a very long life span, they tend to lose their elasticity. All players surveyed agree that base layers have positive affects on how they perform in this colder season.

Advisory Board Meeting #1: Meeting Minutes

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Date: October 6th, 2011
Time: 10:00 - 11:00 am
Project: NYX Resistance

Present:
Erik (Advisory Board Member)
Jonathan (Advisory Board Member)
Barb (Advisory Board Member)
Jim (Advisory Board Member)
Freddie (Advisory Board Member)
Colby (Team Member)
Christa (Team Member)
Ian (Team Member)
Casey (Team Member)
Matt (Team Member)

Meeting Agenda:

Introduce team members, advisers, and NYX
Discuss company and meeting goals
Present BMC to advisory board
Clarify questions
Feedback
Re-cap

Action Items:

Develop a working prototype by next meeting (Casey)
Rip apart a pair of coreshorts and examine the technology (Casey)
Potentially rethink name (Team)
Get in touch with various physiotherapists and kinesiology students to help isolate the specific location of micro muscles (Colby)
Demand Creation Plan (Team)
Get access to U of C's Human Performance lab

Summary:

Upon presentation of NYX Business Model Canvas, immediate questions were raised regarding the actual functionality of the product itself. This question brought up a lot of discussion regarding the current prototype and how it could be improved upon (or if it was even feasible).

The discussion included; how NYX could keep the shirt stationary (prevent the bottom of the shirt from sliding up), does the name NYX really sell what we are marketing, which muscle groups will the shirt target, how will NYX prevent other companies from doing the same thing, what will the prototype look like - will it require a body suite to be functional or would a shirt suffice.

After much discussion, it became apparent that testing out various prototypes, meeting with physiotherapists, and getting athletes to test out the product would be our immediate steps in moving forward. Without being able to prove our product works, everything else is built on a house of cards.

Overall great headway was made with the potential designs for the prototype as well as the next steps needed to move forward.

Market research: hockey

Posted by Anonymous - 2 comments

During my last hockey game I asked all the players about how they viewed the base layers available for athletes today. These questions consisted of both yes/no as well as free answer questions. In the end the answers that came back were quite interesting: for the average athlete they would be willing to spend 150-200 dollars for a superior base layer with the resistance technology. When it came to quality vs price, quality was chosen by 16 of 20 players. This means that people were willing to spend a higher price if quality was a greater. Overwhelmingly I received the answer that today's choices do not offer enough variety and styles. The players were unanimous in this point and this brought up a disgust for no co ours and only the standard black colour. In terms of how the shirt makes them feel, I found that it was a fairly even split between nothing at all and getting g a boost in confidence.

Oct 7th/2011

Posted by Anonymous - 0 comments

During this meeting the group worked together very well deciding on the way we will attack the market place. at first we were only concerned wit the actual athletes but our thoughts later evolved to thinking about the trainers the athletes listen too. From the experience we have in our group dealing with sales to athletes we found that the most effective way to have a product adopted is to convince the trainers that our resistance shirts would help elevate the players game.

The meeting went on to decide different roles of the group to finish the product, mainly the development of the prototype. This task was given to Casey in return for a lessor work load on the rest of the product. After a rigorous battle of rock paper scissors between Ian and Colby, it was decided that Ian would become the model for the shirt and it would be based on a hockey players needs. Being that we are from Canada it made perfect sense.

In the ended were each given clear roles of what was needed from each of us to complete our task.

For the next meeting we plan on focusing on a prototype built and more research about our market lace completed.

Individual Blog Post

Posted by Colby Sawatzky - 0 comments

Nyx has been working at a demand creation plan this week. We have decided to take a different approach with this. It is my expertise so to speak in this area, where we have come up with this plan. I work for a company called drinkme Beverage, and we have had great opportunities as a company to get involved with many professional athletes. From my experience with working with these athletes and trainers that it is the trainers that decide what these athletes put in their bodies or even on their bodies. The first step of getting into this market is to be able to get into trainers minds, which then pass it on to their athletes. A top down effect is what Nyx will be going with.

Demand Creation Plan

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Customer Acquisition Approach:

In the first year, NYX will be taking a slightly different approach to acquiring new customers. Rather than initially targeting our end user (the customer), we will focus on giving out our product to all of the trainers on major league sporting teams (in most cases the trainers are usually the individuals telling the players what to wear).

In order to get a hold of these trainers, our plan is to host a gala/presentation in 40 of the major cities in the USA and 8 in Canada with invites to all of the major trainers involved at the professional level. At these events we will be giving each trainer a NYX Resistant shirt to test out along with a great meal and a small presentation about the design of the shirt and how it works. At the end of the presentation we will make it available for the trainers to book a time for the NYX team to come and measure up each teams athletes and have demo shirts made for the trainers whole team.

Once NYX has established itself as a strictly performance brand used by only the highest level of athletes, we will then begin to promote our product to consumers. Once everyday consumers see all of their favorite athletes using NYX shirts it will increase the legitimacy of our product and thus increase demand.

Cost & Budget To Acquire Customers:

We will be targeting 40 major cities in the USA and 8 major cities in Canada for which we plan on hosting a Gala/presentation for trainers of major sports teams. We conservatively estimate that we can bring out 10 trainers to each presentation (most professional teams have 3-4 trainers) totaling 480 trainers in total.

We estimate it will cost $100 per person to host the presentations and another $100 per person for the cost of a NYX shirt. Therefore our cost to reach each individual trainer is approximately $200 a person. In order to reach 480 trainers, the total cost would be $96,000 with an additional $20,000 budgeted for traveling expense and accommodations bring our grad total to $116,000.

Rational For Stick With Original BMC

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Despite coming up with a number of interesting alternatives, we've chosen to stick with our original model for the following reasons:

Alternative 1: The main changes made in alternative 1 were to do with the distribution channels and customer segment (all other factors were adapted based on these two variables). Instead of really pushing the product online, in this alternative we chose to sell our products through various athletic retailers. The main downside with this particular approach would be the lower profit margins. However, the upside is we could expand our target market. This particular strategy could be implemented more in the future once NYX has been well established in the industry and has a greater following of amateur athletes. Anytime a new product is launched, it is the die-hard consumers that will be willing to test out and try your product. For this reason we feel it is in our best interest in the beginning stages to target high performance athletes and hence the reason for choosing our original business model canvas.

Alternative 2: The obese market is a rapidly growing market (no pun intended); however, this particular product primarily caters to driven high performance athletes that are looking for an edge. Fitting would also be a big issue and would require a great deal of customization resulting in higher production costs which would be difficult to make up for in the price.

BMC Alternative Two

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BMC Alternative One

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Individual Blog Post

Posted by Colby Sawatzky - 0 comments

The team that Nyx has put together is roughly the same team as last semester. We added a couple new additions that will work well on our team. Matt and Casey with both bring huge assets to the team. Casey with her expertise in sewing will allow Nyx to develop a proper prototype this semester. Matt with his abilities in IT will allow the team to develop a proper website, and blog site. He also brings creativity and a great artistic ability. Can't wait to see what the rest of the semester holds.