You might not think a basketball has changed much over the years. Kevin Krysiak, 37, Wilson Sporting Goods’ global director of innovation for team sports, would beg to differ.
Last year, the 102-year-old Chicago-based sports equipment maker introduced its first “smart” ball: the Wilson X basketball, with an embedded sensor that connects to a player’s smartphone to track shots, help analyze performance and run games where players must keep sinking baskets to beat the buzzer.
Connected products are part of Wilson’s plan, which started in 2014, to push more innovative, higher-end products after profitability and sales “stagnated,” said Wilson President Mike Dowse.
A smart football is expected this fall, and Krysiak’s team is also working on a more sophisticated version aimed at college and professional teams.
Krysiak has worked at Wilson for 15 years and was a competitive basketball and tennis player during his high school days. In a recent interview at Wilson’s Schiller Park lab, he said the company that makes the game-day ball of the NFL also wants to be known as a technology company.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: When I think about a football or basketball, it doesn’t seem like something that’s seen a lot of innovation. What does your team do?
A: A lot of the innovation we’ve done starts with listening to that high-end elite athlete and trying to design products that allow them to perform better. In the past we’ve really focused on creating high-end game-performing products that leave it all on the field. As we moved to connected products — we probably started this journey almost 10 years ago — we were saying if we put sensors into a ball we know there’s things we can learn to help the athlete perform better or create a unique experience in the driveway or the backyard.
Q: Is this a reaction to declining sports participation and getting people as excited about sports as a smartphone game?
A: Kids are just specializing at such an early age. So if they’re just playing basketball all the time, the amount of time they get to play football or basketball changes. That’s my interpretation of what’s going on in the markets right now with participation.
Q: Are you going after the person who wants the stats, or a casual player having fun?
A: Reaching the casual fan for both basketball and football is the initial target. We have several other developments where we’re focusing more on the institutional side — teams, coaches and players where you can track all their shots, track all their throws. Kids and athletes want that instant gratification and instant feedback, and the ability to put sensors in the ball makes that possible. You can take the backyard experience and enhance it, and you can also take serious court or field time and make that more impactful practice for those guys and help them perform better.
Q: These aren’t cheap compared with a standard ball. (A connected basketball is $199.99; others run from $11.99 to $79.99.)
A: No, but there’s a lot that goes into it. Smartphones aren’t cheap, either, unfortunately.
Q: How would the version for college or pro teams differ from the one for casual players?
A: We’ve got to be much more detailed and look for nuances and data that nobody’s seen before. We’re going to be able to help quantify that athlete in ways football’s never seen. That’s the path we’re heading towards, and it’s going to help players inform their game, inform their decisions and help coaches hopefully get that extra edge they need to win on the field.
Q: If you’re looking at things no one has looked at, does that mean you’re also trying to teach them why they need it?
A: That’s a big part of it. If we’re going to be presenting data, we need to understand on a macro and micro level what does it mean.
Q: Do you have that understanding yet?
A: We’re looking into it. That’s what these very smart gentlemen behind me — emphasis on them — are working on. It’s an exciting time to be working on this.
Q: Do you ever see something like this getting into the Super Bowl game ball?
A: We hope so. We know it’s possible now to be undetectable and we know it’s going to keep getting smaller and better.
Q: Wilson’s a 102-year-old company. Does that make it easier or harder to start doing something different?
A: Being the official NFL ball, that’s a tremendous platform. People trust us, people believe in us, and they look to us as being experts. So compared to a startup trying to push something to the NFL, I think there’s some challenges they would have.
Q: Is this a gimmick or something every ball is going to have someday?
A: I think we are headed down that path because it will create a lot of value. When we’ve sat down with coaches they’re like, ‘Wow, OK, this is going to help me plan, evaluate, scout.’ And we’ve had people who bought the regular basketball call customer service (when it didn’t work with their phone) because they knew we had a connected basketball and they assumed all of them were like that. If they’re assuming that, who’s to say it’s not possible that every ball has some sort of smart technology down the line?
Q: Do you see a role for Wilson not just selling the ball that tracks the data, but also telling people how to interpret it?
A: That’s why we’re doing this. I think a lot of the times when we’ve gone to coaches we’re showing them things they’ve never seen before and planting some things in their head of what this can do. How we ultimately refine it and pitch it might be a little different, but just the raw data we’ve seen so far, we feel there’s a lot of value there. And we’re dead set on moving this company to trying to be more of a technology company.
Q: Why?
A: If you look at any company, if you don’t adapt to change, you’re going to be left in the dust. Look at some of the top companies, like Kodak, that were considered the best, and they didn’t respond to the way the world was changing. I think if Wilson doesn’t respond, there’s a chance we might not be here 100 years from now. It’s our responsibility to say this is what our athletes are doing and we need to come up with products that facilitate that and help them enjoy the experience.
Twitter @laurenzumbach
