For
Immediate Release February 3, 2000
SportsLab
Provides Jump Start on Designs of the Future
New
York, February 3, 2000 --SportsLab, the sporting goods industry trade
event being launched June 12-15 in Las Vegas by Miller Freeman, today
announced the addition to the event of a new interactive program called
DesignLab.
DesignLab
will focus on emerging trends in fabrications, colors and styles for
2001and beyond, while also featuring a number of cutting edge companies,
people, products and ideas from the sporting goods industry.DesignLab
will run concurrently with SportsLab at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
The
DesignLab display and seminar series will be coordinated by Pat Doran,
a veteran of the sports apparel industry. "DesignLab will provide
retailers and manufacturers with an opportunity to touch and feel
the latest fabrics, talk to the designers and creative teams responsible
for coming up with the new ideas, preview presentation boards and
interact with the leading trend futurists," said Doran. "We
also believe DesignLab will arm retailers with ideas about trends
in materials, styles and colors, enabling them to make their own shops
more exciting and competitive."
Participating
in DesignLab will be the hottest style predictors and designers from
around the world, as well as technology suppliers offering demonstrations
of the next wave of business-to-business and computer-aided design.
Greg
Thompson, president of American Sports Group, Inc., a product design
organization specializing in the sports and adventure travel markets,
indicated that the unique format of DesignLab would provide his company
with the right venue to showcase its technical advancements in apparel
and equipment.
"Deployed
as a strategic business tool, design is the key to effective product
differentiation. In today's rapidly changing business environment,
with expanding globalization, new technologies and intensified competition,
the DesignLab format gives us an opportunity to demonstrate the benefits
of ASG's design and development services," he said.
American
Sports Group has provided designs and manufacturing solutions for
such top brands as Nike, JanSport, adidas, Pearl Izumi, Head, The
North Face, Warner Bros. and many others.
DesignLab will also be working closely with Aly Khalifa, founder of
Gamil Design, an advanced design and engineering consultancy focusing
on sports products. Gamil's international client base includes Nike,
Trek, Bausch & Lomb Evenflo, LL Bean and many others.
Khalifa,
who holds numerous patents in a variety of fields and teaches design
at North Carolina State University, will work with DesignLab on seminars
promoting creativity and the use of technology. "It's great to
see a U.S. trade show like SportsLab take the time to focus on design,"
Khalifa said. "Time and again, we prove to ourselves in this
country how much consumers respond to design, but we rarely nurture
it or try to understand it very well. As a result, our design firm
travels to shows in Europe to find an exciting discourse and environment
for new design, all of which are really needed here."
Amber
Brookman, CEO and President of Brookwood Companies, added, "This
is an idea long overdue. Allowing the creative talents in the sports
industry to showcase their ideas about what's now and what's next
in a group exhibit will help energize our industry. DesignLab gives
fabric suppliers the opportunity to participate in an interactive
exhibition where they can share ideas on future trends and some of
the developments that will recharge active sports design."
