International Young Designers Create a Picture of the Future Sport

Future-oriented tasks are a trademark of the Masterclass from the very beginning. For this year's task, the year 2070 was chosen as the horizon, as ISPO celebrates its 50th birthday in 2020. So a good reason to look ahead to the next 50 years.

What role will sport play in 50 years? In which environment will we do sport? Will fashion and sportswear become one? Will we manage to preserve the earth as a living and sports space? Or will we ultimately be left with only the escape into space? Within the framework of these questions, young designers and decision-makers of the coming decades developed innovative perspectives for products and structures.

From "No sports!" to "Space Sports"

They brought to the workshop diverse and exciting suggestions and ideas about the year 2070 - from strict "No sports!" to "Space Sports". Six thematic focuses were formed from these ideas, which were further developed, elaborated and visualized by six specifically selected teams during the two design days of the four-day workshop.

Design at the interface of human and climate change

Sport and exercise in nature is perceived as relaxing, health-promoting and inspiring, an indispensable and (still) dreamlike experience for all senses - an important point especially in the current situation. In view of the social developments in recent years, a team drew up a catalogue of questions, culminating in the question: "Are we aware of what we will lose if we continue to do things as we have done up to now?"

The team defined three fields of action for the design of clothing at the interface between mankind and climate change:

• Everyday clothing is thought and designed to be more functional without neglecting the fashionable look. Even everyday life needs performance!
• Performance clothing is becoming more and more extreme.
• Sportswear X Fun X Coolness

Plant-based clothing materials and environmentally friendly performance clothing

Another group placed the relationship between man and nature at the centre of their concept. The organic lace ("bio lace"), which a student of the University of Lapland grew from roots herself, showed exemplary approaches for plant-based clothing materials and led to extensive research on the current state of development in research, which was incorporated into a holistic concept for environmentally friendly performance clothing.

Living the Extreme 2070

Under the motto "Living the Extreme 2070", another team devoted itself to the increasingly difficult environmental conditions facing the world's rapidly growing population. Which requirements will the user "Name: 1156, Age: 0-180, Sex: fluent" ...have to ask? Is clothing becoming purely functional protective clothing?

Where does "Space Sports" take us? The team behind this concept agreed that it is not about a relocation of mankind to Mars or another planet  but about using space as a destination for unusual adventure trips to select. Accordingly, clothing and equipment must meet the highest functional requirements.

Final presentation at the ISPO Sustainability Hub

The six concepts attracted a large number of visitors at the final presentation in the ISPO Sustainability Hub. The international design talents explained their ideas in an inspiring and authentic way, demonstrating as in the previous public creative debate, the potential of design. Design is a key to the future and has the elementary power to think beyond the possible. As in 2019, the ISPO Academy Masterclass stand with selected, touchable case studies also offered the numerous visitors the opportunity to immerse themselves in this new world of ideas. The cases were developed in the prototyping workshops especially created for this purpose,

And what is more important in these times of upheaval than experiments, openness to fresh ideas and their implementation?