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FIBO Awards: In the spotlight

Although the show has been rescheduled, the six winners of the FIBO Innovation and Trend Awards 2020 have still been announced. We take a look at the companies whose developments help motivate people to live healthier lives

Published in Health Club Management 2020 issue 6
The winners of the FIBO Innovation
and Trend Awards 2020 have been announced
The winners of the FIBO Innovation and Trend Awards 2020 have been announced

Category: Digital Fitness
Exhibitor: Sphery AG
Product: The ExerCube League

An entirely new form of competition took home the award in this category.

The ExerCube is an immersive, functional fitness game that’s suitable for both training and competition.

The game challenges the body and mind simultaneously and can be adapted to fitness level, gender and age.

FIBO says, “Sphery has taken advantage of eSports’ popularity to offer people an attractive and integrative entry to the world of fitness.”

The league presents fitness studios with a training programme that’s motivational. Sphery is also hoping to reach active eSports athletes, for whom this game can serve as a supplementary training tool to help combat the physical problems associated with playing games while sitting.

The ExerCube League is the ‘physical eSports league for everyone.’

The panel’s assessment:

The ExerCube League serves the exergaming market and is based on scientific studies. The winning product opens up new ways to motivate people to take up and pursue training over the long-term, with a combination of physical activity, gaming and cognitive learning. This cognitive learning represents a new growth market for the fitness industry.

Category: Lifestyle, Life-Balance & Wellness
Exhibitor: JK-International GmbH
Product: Ergoline Sun Angel Spectra

The 2020 winner in the category ‘Lifestyle, Life-Balance & Wellness’ is the Ergoline Sun Angel Spectra. This Medical Active-certified sunbed has an integrated skin sensor that measures the sensitivity of the user’s skin to prevent sunburn.

The Sun Angel offers a ‘Vitamin D Programme’ without direct tanning, as well as an entirely UV-free beauty programme for skincare and collagen formation.

The Robert Koch Institute estimates that more than half of all German adults suffer from insufficient vitamin D. The Sun Angel offers a way of creating this vitamin in the natural way, using controlled UVB light.

The panel’s assessment:

The Ergoline Sun Angel Spectra offers a new interpretation of sunbeds and tanning in fitness studios, giving them a larger role within the framework of health and prevention.

In recent years, trends have seen people moving a greater share of their activities indoors, resulting in less exposure to sunlight. This has had an impact on people’s health, such as through insufficient levels of vitamin D. The winning product closes the gap between societal requirements and trends and biological necessity.

Category: Health & Prevention
Exhibitor: Schwa-medico GmbH
Product: Symbiont

Symbiont offers a combination of real-time training data with electro-stimulation training.

This certified medical product makes it possible to compare perceived exertion during training with objectively measured values such as pulse, HRV, EMG, movement sensors and body composition in real time. This allows the optimum documentation and management of individual progress. Symbiont supports all forms of conventional training activities, as well as EMS training. Its wireless technology makes it easy to use.

Users can share some or all of the results achieved, progress made and data generated in any form required. Links to doctors, therapists, trainers, coaches, team members and social communities are available at the touch of a button.

The panel’s assessment:

Symbiont makes it possible to connect EMS training with the collection of a wide range of biophysiological data. This leads to the optimisation of training control and monitoring in EMS training, while increasing its effectiveness and efficiency. At the same time, the tool can be used independently of EMS training, such as for measuring body data in other training situations – examples include utilisation as an assessment tool for strength training.

Category: Ecology & Sustainability
Exhibitor: IMG Quality Design Sp. Z o.o. Sp. k.
Product: Ergo-Eco Mat

A fully recyclable training mat is the winner in the category ‘Ecology & Sustainability’. The Ergo-Eco Mat is primarily composed of sugar cane, which entirely replaces the resins that would normally be used. This mat’s environmental footprint represents a valuable sales tool.

Furthermore, the fact that it contains no hazardous substances means users training with this mat are also protecting their own health.

Fitness studios can demonstrate their ecological responsibility by using these mats. The Ergo-Eco Mat is also impressive when it comes to functionality, offering good shock absorption during training and excellent durability.

The panel’s assessment:

The Ergo-Eco Mat is the right product for the times – a training mat that is fully recyclable, helping reduce waste.

As it becomes ever more important for society as a whole, and, therefore, also for the fitness industry, to develop products that are sustainable and environmentally friendly, this mat – made out of sugar cane – is an excellent example of an innovative solution.

The Ergo-Eco Mat boasts all the advantages offered by plants – including the absorption of CO2 and reduced emissions.

It can be employed just like a conventional mat and satisfies all use and durability requirements.

Category: Performance
Exhibitor: Eleiko Group AB
Product: Evo Rotating Dumbbell

Evo Rotating Dumbbells are equipped with a rotating grip that allows users to lift them in a controlled and secure fashion. Their design creates a grip diameter that is significantly smaller than conventional dumbbells, making the Evo Rotating Dumbbell suitable for a wider range of users.

The dumbbells’ special grip design also has a patent pending.

The panel’s assessment:

The Evo Rotating Dumbbells’ rotation mechanism makes it the first to simulate barbell training, raising strength training with free weights to a whole new level.

“Utilisation of Evo Rotating Dumbbells’ makes it possible to raise trainees’ motivation, while stimulating improved results,” said the judges.

Category: Start-ups
Exhibitor: air up GmbH Product: Air Up
Air Up is the world’s first drinking bottle that lends flavour to water using only scent, and it has been selected as the winner of the FIBO Innovation Award 2020 in the start-up category.

The Air Up bottle relies on retro-nasal olfaction through the mouth. The bottle’s replaceable scent pods add fragrant air to the water as it is drunk. When the water is swallowed, these scents separate from the water and rise through the pharynx to the smell centre, where they are perceived as taste. The beverage itself continues to be pure water.

With its innovative product, Air Up has declared war on the excessive consumption of sugar in soft drinks, offering an effective aid for people who do not like to drink plain water.

The panel’s assessment:

Air Up is offering a novel new drinking experience – pure water is transformed into a taste experience without adding anything whatsoever. In this way, Air Up is one of many innovative start-ups addressing essential issues such as sustainability for the fitness industry and providing new solutions. Air Up is a unique new product that unites two sensory qualities: taste and smell.

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