NEWS
- February 28, 2024
- We spoke at KANSAI INSPIRATION DAY organized by PLUG AND PLAY.
- December 7, 2023
- We participated in the Innovation Leaders Summit (ILS), one of the largest open innovation conferences in Asia.
- October 31, 2023
- We spoke at the KANSAI NEXT Innovation Meetup hosted by Spready.
- April 18, 2023
- We held a co-creation event with Scrum Ventures.
- April 18, 2023
- We opened the Mizuno Startup Co-creation page.
- April 13, 2023
- We spoke at a seminar hosted by bridge.
“How to create an organization that can run new businesses on its own - Mizuno's challenge to create social innovation through sports -“
The Startup Co-creation vision is a way to change the world with sports technologies.
Mizuno Startup Co-creation
“Mizuno Startup Co-Creation" aims to solve social issues by utilizing the power of sports to achieve its vision of "making people happy through sports."
Asset to offer
*We have the assets of a sales force and sports facilities only in Japan.
Co-creation fields
We are looking for partners who focus on mental training and yips improvement.
We are looking for partners that provide services to improve the Mizuno running ecosystem, such as digital devices which are difficult to develop within Mizuno alone and the organization and execution of numerous events.
We are looking for partners with services and technologies to create new facilities for spatial sensing, VR, AR, XR and so on.
We are looking for partners who can visualize exercise performance to develop new products and services together. (e.g., use of secretions such as sweat and tears, use of video analysis tools, etc.)
We are looking for partners to develop together a simple* cooling device that can lower body temperature.
We are also looking for partners to develop a device that can prevent physical fatigue caused by exercise and leg cramps triggered by sweating.
*Simple = something that can be worn while playing.
We are looking for partners to develop new products and services together by quantifying sleep and clarifying the relationship between sleep and exercise.
We are also looking for partners who have/will develop a technology to measure the degree of fatigue from sleep as well as exercise.
We are looking for partners to research the relationship between odor and exercise function and performance and develop products and services that utilize odor to improve exercise performance.
We are also looking for partners to develop products that enable people to exercise freely without worrying about odor.
Introduction of activities
Introduction of Mizuno Co-creation Business 01
Cooperation with “Blast Motion,” a startup company in the US
Recently in baseball, it is becoming common to analyze movements and develop players using scientific approaches based on data.
In April 2021, Mizuno announced cooperation with “Blast Motion,” a startup company in the US and started selling “Blast Baseball” in Japan, which enables analysis of baseball swings.
Introduction of Mizuno Co-creation Business 02
Cooperation with “Ginco,” a startup company in Japan
In cooperation with Ginco, a company which supports Web3 business of companies using blockchain technology, we started selling 19 items in 3 categories including a shoes NFT that can be exchanged for real shoes as the “Mizuno NFT collection” with a theme of “connecting sports, athletes, artists and gears, getting a wide variety of people interested with a new approach to sports, having athletes and sports gears recorded without fading away and keeping them cherished by people around the world.”
Introduction of Mizuno Co-creation Business 03
Co-creation with “Grace imaging,” the first startup company of Keio University School of Medicine
“Grace imaging, Inc.” developed a device measuring lactic acid which used to require blood collection, but they made it possible just by using sweat. In cooperation with them, we launched “LacttoRUN30”, a service to measure lactate threshold (LT) for runners.
Lactic acid is a substance produced in the body after hard exercise.
This service proposes not only a pace for marathon and training regimens but also the best shoes by measuring LT, which is the maximum possible speed without producing lactic acid.
Introduction of Mizuno Co-creation Business 04
Cooperation with “Reif Co., Ltd.,” a venture company in Japan
If you use the “AM Unit,” a measuring instrument developed by Reif Co., Ltd., you can easily measure walking speed, width of walk and tracks of walk which consist walking ability just by walking 5 meters (*).
Mizuno took it further by estimating “characteristics of walk” and “function and body parts necessary for walk” with “walk type measuring system” uniquely developed by Mizuno and offering products and exercise programs to maintain and support walking ability. We offer these services as “Motion DNA.”
*Need 5 meters to measure. It takes about 7-8 meters of walking in total including an approach and finishing steps to stabilize the walking.
Introduction of Mizuno Co-creation Business 05
Cooperation with “RUN. EDGE,” a startup company in Japan
We are cooperating with a company called RUN. EDGE, which develops and offers services of image search and analysis for a field of sports to support the frontline with cutting edge technologies.
We are aiming to spread the culture and value where anyone can easily analyze images and effectively enhance the team strategies and physicality of each player by combining image technologies that RUN. EDGE owns, and the network which Mizuno has in the sports world.
Introduction of Mizuno Co-creation Business 06
Joint initiative with a Japanese start-up company "MILOQS Co.”
We improved the mental condition and performance of the women's ice hockey team by utilizing "renewro," a neuroscience approach researched and developed at the University of Tsukuba.
This program was expanded upon, and this time "renewro" was utilized for students and leaders of club activities at Kansai University Hokuyo High School.
This was part of a collaborative project called "Katana," which aims to achieve the SDGs by business and school, implemented by Kansai University Hokuyo High School.
We aim to improve performance and strengthen team cooperation thorough training and coaching by visualizing the psychobehavioral characteristics of individuals and interpersonal relationships within teams and identifying the causes of problems that impair performance.
