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What started out as a way of teaching hockey players about the importance of keeping their heads up during games has turned into a blossoming business for a former Ottawa 67s player.
Shea Kewin, who played with the Ontario Hockey League team for two seasons in 2005 and 2006 before being traded to the Oshawa Generals, had struggled with a few concussions during his hockey career. He realized those injuries stemmed from a lack of awareness of the game happening around him and, after thinking it through, came to the conclusion that maybe the best solution wasn’t better equipment, but technology.
“The core root of the problem was really being aware of your surroundings. If you don’t want to get hit by the car, you had better look both ways before you cross the street,” he said. “I noticed a lot of players are playing with their heads down, including me. I was coaching a lot of these kids and kept telling them to keep their heads up. I thought, let’s tape a camera to these kids heads.”
Using the camera, Kewin, 28, could film the game from the player’s vantage point, then use the video afterwards to teach about the importance of staying focused and watching what’s happening around them.
He learned two things from his little experiment: first, that by filming a game from the player’s view, he can teach that player far more about the game than simply avoiding a big hit that may lead to a concussion. Second, he learned the cameras on the market today are not suited to being worn during gameplay.
Kewin and a partner founded UHWK in order to design a better camera for athletes, one that can be worn on a helmet during a game without ever being noticed. The firm, which now employs 10 in Kitchener-Waterloo, spent two years mapping out the design for the tiny camera. They then took it to a professional design firm to finalize the device and prepare it for mass production.
The helmet-mounted camera by UHWK.
The camera is tiny in size, measuring a mere 8.5 centimetres in length and 2.5 centimetres in height. It’s designed to fit just above the cage of any helmet, or it can be mounted to a headband for sports where helmets are not required. The device can record up to 10 hours of video, which it stores on an internal SD memory card in 1080p high definition quality.
A campaign on Kickstarter last year quickly blew past UHWK’s fundraising goals of $40,000. The company ended up raising more than $56,000 to fund mass production of the device, which is now being done overseas. While the camera is available on UHWK’s website for $200 US, retail distribution is in the works. An announcement about which major retailers are going to carry the camera is expected in the coming weeks.
“It’s a pretty awesome space to be in, but we’re also creating a little bit of a new market,” said Kewin. “It’s an all encompassing camera. While we started in hockey, it’s for all sports.”
UHWK’s main rival on the market will be the ubiquitous GoPro brand of cameras, which have made inroads with NHL athletes like Sidney Crosby in recent years. In 2015, GoPro sold more than $1.6 billion US of its cameras which are geared towards outdoors activities and sports. It’s a market Kewin is hoping UHWK can carve a piece out of in the years ahead. But he realizes his tiny company has a lot of work to do in order to chip away at the lead GoPro currently enjoys.
“We’re definitely the underdog,” Kewin said.
查看原文...
Shea Kewin, who played with the Ontario Hockey League team for two seasons in 2005 and 2006 before being traded to the Oshawa Generals, had struggled with a few concussions during his hockey career. He realized those injuries stemmed from a lack of awareness of the game happening around him and, after thinking it through, came to the conclusion that maybe the best solution wasn’t better equipment, but technology.
“The core root of the problem was really being aware of your surroundings. If you don’t want to get hit by the car, you had better look both ways before you cross the street,” he said. “I noticed a lot of players are playing with their heads down, including me. I was coaching a lot of these kids and kept telling them to keep their heads up. I thought, let’s tape a camera to these kids heads.”
Using the camera, Kewin, 28, could film the game from the player’s vantage point, then use the video afterwards to teach about the importance of staying focused and watching what’s happening around them.
He learned two things from his little experiment: first, that by filming a game from the player’s view, he can teach that player far more about the game than simply avoiding a big hit that may lead to a concussion. Second, he learned the cameras on the market today are not suited to being worn during gameplay.
Kewin and a partner founded UHWK in order to design a better camera for athletes, one that can be worn on a helmet during a game without ever being noticed. The firm, which now employs 10 in Kitchener-Waterloo, spent two years mapping out the design for the tiny camera. They then took it to a professional design firm to finalize the device and prepare it for mass production.
The helmet-mounted camera by UHWK.
The camera is tiny in size, measuring a mere 8.5 centimetres in length and 2.5 centimetres in height. It’s designed to fit just above the cage of any helmet, or it can be mounted to a headband for sports where helmets are not required. The device can record up to 10 hours of video, which it stores on an internal SD memory card in 1080p high definition quality.
A campaign on Kickstarter last year quickly blew past UHWK’s fundraising goals of $40,000. The company ended up raising more than $56,000 to fund mass production of the device, which is now being done overseas. While the camera is available on UHWK’s website for $200 US, retail distribution is in the works. An announcement about which major retailers are going to carry the camera is expected in the coming weeks.
“It’s a pretty awesome space to be in, but we’re also creating a little bit of a new market,” said Kewin. “It’s an all encompassing camera. While we started in hockey, it’s for all sports.”
UHWK’s main rival on the market will be the ubiquitous GoPro brand of cameras, which have made inroads with NHL athletes like Sidney Crosby in recent years. In 2015, GoPro sold more than $1.6 billion US of its cameras which are geared towards outdoors activities and sports. It’s a market Kewin is hoping UHWK can carve a piece out of in the years ahead. But he realizes his tiny company has a lot of work to do in order to chip away at the lead GoPro currently enjoys.
“We’re definitely the underdog,” Kewin said.
查看原文...
