Judging the 2017 ISPO Awards

MINT Snowboarding founder Tammy Esten was recently in Munich having been invited to be a part of the Action Jury Panel at the ISPO AWARD Jury Meetings 2017.

What are the ISPO Awards?

The ISPO Awards are a leading competition for sports brands to be awarded with their latest innovations and product highlights. An international jury of experts literally separates the wheat from the chaff, resulting in the most exceptional sporting goods being honoured with an ISPO Award. Look out for ISPO Awarded products next time you are looking for an upgrade to your kit – they are a great way of receiving recommendations from independent experts.

How you judge sporting good innovations?

The Jury Panel consisted of a team of 45 independent sports professionals, ranging from athletes, designers, retailers, consumers and journalists. The teams got a preview of several hundred product entries from different segments (including action, ski, outdoor & performance) and then judged each on the following criteria: innovation, design, function & eco responsibility. Each product received much scrutiny, testing and then debate between the teams to whittle down the most innovative products.

Categories in the action sports segment included snowboards, bindings, boots, goggles, helmets, avalanche equipment and protective gear.

Tammy said of the event: “I was honoured to be invited. The organisation of the judging process ran seamlessly and efficiently considering the huge amount of product there was to examine. We saw some pretty awesome new kit, got geeky over it and then picked out a killer selection of cracking stuff.”

Which products won awards?

Well, that would be telling as Tammy is sworn to secrecy! The Awards will be announced at ISPO Munich from 5th – 8th February with Winners and Gold Winners displayed category by category. Then the Action Sport Product of the Year will be announced at the show too.

Rooms full of new product!

Photo credit: www.boardsportsource.com