Four categories of passionate users in the sports industry

Our study focuses on firms producing equipment for winter sport and outdoor recreation. The empirical data consists of theme interviews with 13 Nordic companies developing sports products, services or experiences. These companies operate in the Nordic countries, where much of their product development takes place. The companies represent significant shares of the Nordic markets.

We asked those being interviewed to reflect how users have been involved in the development of one product, service or experience that is central for their company. This task included a description of the product or service in question, how consumers and users were involved in its development, and how the company in question used the results of the involvement. The data reflects identified and conscious strategies of involving users in product development.

Nevertheless, such data cannot reveal all the ways in which users are involved in the product development of these companies. From experience and literature, we know that companies have a multitude of ways of considering users in product development.

Table 1. Examples of involving user innovators in product development (Bråtå et al. 2009)

In this empirical section we focus on the finding that there are different types of involved users in the business cases. These types have their counterparts in literature: user innovators (cf. von Hippel 2005, Leadbeater and Miller 2004), professional athletes (cf. Shah 2005; Fink et al. 2004), enthusiastic amateurs (cf.

Bloch 1986; Stebbins 1992), and passionate insiders (cf. Kotro 2007). These categories are summarized in Tables 1-4 and described in greater detail in a separate report (Bråtå et al. 2009).

Table 2. Examples of involving professional athletes in product development (Bråtå et al. 2009)

User innovators in Nordic sports industry are individuals who most often have found the current equipment insufficient and have a prototype for a better one.

Their innovations derive from desire to have more functional sports equipment (Table 1). Professional athletes are closer to institutions: they have a strong

User innovators

Kitewing relies on information from individual users and user communities when developing wing shaped kites.

Klättermusen was founded by a user who was not satisfied with outwear and backpack products and it still relies much on information stemming from own direct sporting experience.

The founders of Extrem were skiers who started producing their own skis initially in their parents' garage.

Endre Hals is a skier who builds tailored plastic skis adapted to individual users.

Professional athletes

Karhu employs a team consisting of world-class skiers in the development of skis.

Madshus and a world-class skier worked together to design skis to suit a particular skiing technique.

Helly Hansen supplied the wardrobe for a sailing team participating in an around-the-world-race as a means to test the gear thoroughly in extreme use. Helly Hansen also has a team consisting of skiers and snowboarders to test prototypes.

A sail designer at WB-Sails coaches athletes in the national sailing team.

vision of how the sport should be developed and especially how certain product lines should met the requirements of hard core users (Table 2). These lead users have their say in product development through testing and interaction with the product development teams of sports companies.

Table 3. Examples of involving enthusiastic amateurs in product development (Bråtå et al. 2009)

Enthusiastic amateurs are cooperating with the companies in events organized for them by the companies in order to learn from the lead users and gain visibility in the markets (Table 3). Enthusiastic amateurs are also more informally heard when new sports projects are started and their points of view frequently asked through social networks. Enthusiastic amateurs are often important social actors and their opinion guides the formulation of sports trends when it comes to branding which is a significant part of the economy of sports industry.

Table 4. Examples of involving passionate insiders in product development (Bråtå et al. 2009)

Passionate insiders are an interesting lead user group since they mediate the users' needs, values and habits to the product development and other functions of the business organization recognizing simultaneously the restrictions product development has depending on e.g. material and price requirements (Table 4).

Passionate insiders often resemble enthusiastic amateurs but additionally work for the company carrying out product development. They may also have a background of a user innovator or a former professional athlete.

Enthusiastic amateurs

Fjällräven organises a trekking event where it interacts with consumers.

Backpack maker Bergans invites amateurs to take part in festivals, competitions, and web services.

Finnfoam Paippi relied on the experiences of non-professional skiers when designing a ski tunnel for amateurs.

Passionate insiders

Suunto employed hobbyists when designing wristop computers for sports communities.

Rottefella tested its ski bindings extensively with experiences skiers when developing a new telemark binding system (NTN).

It is noteworthy that all four identified user groups involved in the product development of the studied Nordic sports companies can be considered to consist of passionate consumers and users. Such passionate consumers have been considered easy and beneficial to involve in the product development of the companies. This leads to two interesting follow-up questions, which are discussed in the next section. First, can it be beneficial to involve passionate consumers and users in other industries as well. Second, are involvement procedures themselves best suitable for passionate consumers and users.

5. Discussion: Passionate consumers and consumer