🎾🤖🏟️ #14: 3D Printed tennis balls, robot football and stadiums made of timber

Welcome to Issue #14 of Innovation in Sport, rounding-up the latest innovations and trends in sports technology, media, sustainability & impact.

The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice it’s been a while since the last edition of IIS, but we’re back with a fresh look, and some even fresher innovations. Robot football anybody?

Let’s be honest, nobody loves a self-indulgent pre-amble to a newsletter, so let’s get straight into the latest news and breakthroughs.

💡 INNOVATION 

🎾 I play a lot of tennis, but one thing that bothers me is how often tennis balls need to be replaced. It’s one area of my life where I’m very conscious of neglecting my sustainability principles, which is why my attention was captured by University of the Arts London student Noé Chouraqui's POINT Ball project.

More than 300 million tennis balls are produced globally each year, with most ending up in landfills where they take 400 years to decompose.

Chouraqui's solution? A fully 3D-printed, pressureless tennis ball that maintains the bounce, flight, and grip of traditional balls whilst being completely recyclable.

Developed as his final year project at Central Saint Martins, POINT has already caught the attention of the International Tennis Federation, who are reviewing the data and considering regulatory adjustments.

By using additive manufacturing and circular design principles, Chouraqui has created something that performs like the original but reimagines the entire lifecycle.

The fact that one student project could potentially transform an entire industry speaks to the power of questioning "Why do we do things this way?" rather than accepting the status quo.

🏀 Sleep tech startup Somnee is deepening its ties with the NBA and rolling out a newer, improved version of its AI-powered sleep headband.

📱 Apple announced significant health and fitness tracking updates to its Airpods and Apple Watch at its recent September showcase. New sensors in AirPods, safety and endurance features on Apple Watch, and AI-powered coaching in watchOS signal a strategy to support athletes in more moments.

🏃‍➡️ Kinneta's VR fitness platform adapts virtual terrain in real-time based on your performance, turning boring workouts into personalised, game-like experiences.

🤖 Robot football, kick-boxing and 200km/h drone racing were just three of the technology-driven sports that attracted crowds at the recently concluded 2025 World Smart Industry Expo in Chongqing, China. With plenty of human skill and ingenuity also required, could this be a whole new category of sport we’ll all be enjoying in the near future?

👨🏽‍🤝‍👨🏼 COMMUNITY IMPACT 

👊 A new boutique fitness concept opening in Manhattan is teaching self-defence in a modern HIIT exercise setting.

The Pack combines strength training, cardio, and striking practice on Body Opponent Bags in 50-minute sessions, illustrating an interesting evolution in the fitness class landscape.

For years, boutique fitness has been about aesthetic goals: sculpting, toning, looking good - or just flat out burning as many calories as possible. The Pack signals a swing towards utility. In an era of rising urban safety concerns and global uncertainty, learning to defend yourself at the same time as hitting your daily fitness goals makes a lot of sense.

The repackaging is smart too. Moving self-defence from strip-lit dojos to sleek, music-driven studios makes these skills more accessible to people who might never have considered traditional martial arts classes. It's the same inclusive, community-driven approach that made SoulCycle successful, but with tangible real-world applications.

🏋 PureGym has joined forces with former Olympian cyclist Sir Chris Hoy, The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust to offer men with prostate cancer a free one-year membership and structured exercise plans to help them stay active.

🤾‍♀️ WOMEN'S SPORT 

⛹️‍♀️ ASICS have partnered with Inclusive Sportswear and Mind to prototype a new approach to sport uniforms for girls after research revealed that 70% said they'd be more likely to participate in PE if they had kit that made them feel comfortable.

64% of UK girls abandon sports before age 16, and in some areas, PE engagement sits at just 38.2%. But it's not that these girls don't enjoy sports.

Feedback like "Our kit is itchy, see-through and makes you really sweaty." "We worry period leaks will show." "It feels like it was made for boys," gave ASICS designers the insights to create kit that works for different body shapes, weather conditions, and personal comfort needs.

Instead of asking "how do we get girls more interested in sport?" they asked "what's stopping them from participating?" shifting the perspective from trying to create enthusiasm, to removing barriers, and recognising that inclusion often starts with the basics that others take for granted.

Sometimes innovation isn't about the flashiest new technology - it's about finally addressing long overlooked fundamentals.

⚽ The 2025 Uefa Women’s European Championship generated CHF 205 million (US$257.78 million) across Switzerland, according to a report from Uefa and Ernst & Young (EY).

• A record 657,291 tickets were sold

• 1.2 million fans visited fan zones in the eight host cities

• 412 million people worldwide watched live TV coverage

• A sponsorship roster of 21 brands – the largest in Uefa tournament history – drove a 150% increase in sponsorship revenue compared to the previous edition

• And a tournament record was set for social media impressions (945 million), while the event delivered 712 million video views and 35.6 million social media engagements

🌍 CLIMATE & SUSTAINABILITY

🏟️ Fukushima’s new all-timber football stadium reimagines what sports venues could be in a climate-conscious future.

The Fukushima United Stadium isn't just designed to be built with locally sourced laminated wood, it's also designed to be completely disassembled and recycled, inspired by the ancient Japanese tradition of rebuilding shrines.

The design integrates passive cooling systems, rainwater harvesting, and references traditional thatched architecture whilst delivering modern performance. It's a powerful example of how we can honour cultural heritage whilst addressing today's environmental challenges. The project also demonstrates that sustainability doesn't require sacrificing ambition or beauty.

In a world where the construction industry accounts for nearly 40% of global carbon emissions, projects like this show us a different path forward: one where buildings become part of the circular economy rather than contributors to waste.

💡 Six innovators have received Tech365 Incubate grants, each worth up to $40,000, to advance the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals through a combination of sport and technology, as part of the IOC’s Olympism365 Innovation Hub. The innovators are:

• All in for Sport Consortium, whose members are piloting a web3-enabled platform that gives marginalised communities direct control over sports funding.

• Bamako-Technologie (Mali), which is developing an electricity-generating bicycle that will enable households to meet essential energy needs.

• Fundación Gold Sports (Colombia), which is combining basketball with accessible digital tools that promote mental wellness, self-expression and inclusion through podcasts, interactive content, group sessions and digital training for young people, caregivers and coaches.

• Positive Impact Events (Global), which is developing an AI-technology that suggests optimal decisions and practical actions to help sports events advance the SDGs.

• Sports’ Intelligence (Colombia), which is bringing data-driven insights, modern training tools, and scalable performance tracking systems.

• Women Emerging (WE) (GBR), which runs virtual learning journeys that generate stories and insights which feed into a free, AI-powered digital library offering women practical leadership knowledge.

🌳 Sport England has launched a multi-million-pound “Movement Fund,” reserving up to £16 million for green sports initiatives and community organisations to boost sport sector-wide environmental sustainability

⚽ The 2026 Fifa World Cup could be the last to be held in North America without significant adaptation to extreme climate conditions, according to the new Pitches in Peril report co-authored by Common Goal and Football For Future (FFF) that found that 14 of 16 host venues exceed safe-play thresholds for at least three major climate threats in extreme heat, unplayable rainfall and flooding.

📹 MEDIA & COMMUNICATIONS

 🎾 Venus and Serena Williams this week launched their own ‘Stockton Street’ podcast, exclusively on X. An ode to their Compton roots, the tennis-legend sisters will discuss details of their lifelong journeys and relationship with one another in bi-weekly episodes.

⚽ ‘Baller League USA’ is set to launch in Miami, including Ronaldinho and Usain Bolt as managers. The 6-a-side indoor league that has been a major success in Germany and the UK, will feature 12 teams made up of street ballers, free agents, ex-pros, futsal stars and academy stars.

⚽ Amazon Prime Video will produce a data-enhanced simulcast of its Uefa Champions League coverage for viewers in the UK, Germany and Italy this season, serving up AI-powered statistics and visual overlays. ‘Prime Vision’ uses data captured by optical tracking systems installed for goal line technology (GLT) and semi-automated offside technology (SAOT) to unlock real time insights on all 22 players on the pitch.

⚽ M+C Saatchi has teamed up with former Premier League midfielder Jamie Redknapp to launch a new soccer talent management agency. ‘M+C Saatchi Football’ will specialise in end-to-end management, combining on and off field representation.

⚽ Fifa and DAZN claim the revamped 2025 Club World Cup this summer was watched by 2.7 billion people around the world. All 63 games were available to stream for free on DAZN, in addition to 100+ local broadcast deals.

🤼 WrestleMania 43 will be held in Saudi Arabia in 2027, the first time its flagship event will be staged outside of North America. WrestleMania will form part of Riyadh Season, the Saudi capital’s annual series of entertainment, cultural and sporting events, with an exact date yet to be confirmed.

🤖 AI x SPORTS

🤖 A recent IBM study of 20,000+ sports fans across 12 countries revealed that 85% see value in integrating AI into their sports experience, and a perhaps surprising 63% already trust AI-generated content.

Fans’ top priorities for AI in sports include real-time match updates and more personalised content

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See you next time,

Adam Reed
Innovation in Sport