Calhoun, Ga.—Shaw Sports Turf recently opened its innovative PEAK Performance Lab, a facility meant to redefine turf research and development. This innovative hub is said to underscore Shaw Sports Turf’s commitment to putting athletes at the center of its R&D process, driving a new industry standard for performance, safety and playability.
The PEAK Performance Lab is built upon three critical pillars—playability, environment and athlete kinetics—with the intent to ensure that every product developed is optimized for the demands of the sport, athlete performance, environmental responsibility and adaptability.
“The PEAK Performance Lab represents how Shaw Sports Turf continues to lead the industry and put customers at the center of innovation,” said Chuck McClurg, vice president of Shaw’s turf division. “Most companies rely on the assumption that mechanical tests of surface performance simulate how athletes will interact with the surface. By shifting from this mechanical testing to an athlete-driven approach, we can better understand how surfaces impact real athletes in terms of their movement, risk factors for injury and performance. This facility allows us to quickly turn insights into value, delivering real benefits to athletes as well as our distributors, partners and end use customers.”
At the core of the PEAK Performance Lab is a motion capture system that has been custom-designed to analyze how turf influences an athletic movement. This technology allows Shaw Sports Turf to move beyond conventional mechanical testing, which fails to capture the complexities of real athletes’ interactions with the surface.
“At Shaw, we’re constantly pushing the boundaries of turf innovation to better serve athletes,” said Trey Brindle, director of research and innovation. “Our new PEAK Performance Lab is emblematic of Shaw’s drive to go beyond industry standards. Athlete testing turf surfaces in the product development phase provides us with invaluable information that far exceeds what we get with standardized mechanical tests.”
The PEAK Performance Lab is designed to turn real-time biomechanical insights into immediate product improvements. According to the company, this demonstrates its commitment to develop turf systems that are optimized for not only the sport and environmental conditions, but also for the athletes playing on them.
With the launch of this facility, Shaw Sports Turf says it is not only shaping the future of synthetic turf but also changing the way the industry thinks about athlete-driven innovation.