Shaw Sports Turf has expanded its R&D capabilities by opening a PEAK performance lab. The lab is built upon three critical pillars and aims for optimizing product development to meet the demands by the sport, athlete performance, environmental responsibility and adaptability.

According to a press release, the lab will be used to consider playability, environment and athlete kinetics for the various synthetic turf products Shaw Sports produces. “Currently the industry relies on mechanical test and gauge performance,” says Shaw Sports Vice-President, Chuck McClug. He calls it a paradigm shift.

A state-of-the-art motion capture system is the core of the lab. According to Shaw Sports, it was custom-designed to analyze how turf influences an athletic movement. The technology should allow them to move beyond conventional mechanical testing, which fails to capture the complexities of real athletes’ interactions with the surface.

Biomechanical insights

The Performance Lab is designed to turn real-time biomechanical insights into immediate product improvements. The company claims that it represents a major step forward in sports surface innovation and “one that prioritizes athlete interaction, using cutting edge biomechanical testing methods,” the statement reads.