Mapping the future of protective hand-exoskeletons Market identification and branding strategy development Master thesis MSc Strategic Product Design Douwe Bouwers Delft University of Technology December 2020 Author Douwe Bouwers Student no. 4303032 Supervisory team Erik-Jan Hultink Chair Pinar Cankurtaran Mentor CrossGuard Arnaud van der Veen Company mentor December 2020 II Acknowledgements This report is the result of almost half a year of hard work. Throughout the process, I have received support form various people. First of all, I would like to thank my supervisory team, Erik-Jan Hultink and Pinar Cankurtaran, for their guidance during this project. I would also like to thank Arnaud van der Veen, my company mentor from CrossGuard, for all your advice and your close involvement with my project. I would like to acknowledge all people at CrossGuard, for their help and openness. Lastly, I would like to thank my parents for their support, love and patience, especially in the most stressful times. III This is where IBM’s example comes in. Just like Watson, the Executive Summary ProGauntlet is a technological solution that is looking for a problem to solve. The initial aim of this project was precisely this: finding In 2011, the world watched in amazement how IBM’s AI named another market for the ProGauntlet. Watson won at Jeopardy!. Right afterwards, IBM decided to use this power to revolutionize the healthcare system. AI doctors would The research method consisted of a product analysis, literature change everyone’s lives. Sadly, Watson did not revolutionize research and user research, mainly in the form of interviews. The healthcare. It did not prove to be as useful in reality as was most promising markets were researched in-depth: ice hockey, field anticipated1. hockey, lacrosse, kendo, Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) and motorcycle riding. Of these, the only people that would benefit from the How could this happen? ProGauntlet (besides HEMA) is a certain niche of the FMA. This group consists of about only 500 people, so this is a nice addition to the In short, IBM started with a very specific use case, then invented a total market for the ProGauntlet, but it definitely isn’t a sustainable super high-tech solution for it, and then started wondering how it market for CrossGuard. could actually be useful2. Since there is no viable future market for the ProGauntlet, the main This example actually illustrates the problem that CrossGuard has. focus of this project has become to determine the most interesting Luckily, CrossGuard’s problem is multiple orders of magnitude market in which to introduce a redesigned protective glove. Based smaller than it was for IBM. on the research, this appears to be field hockey. CrossGuard is a company that has developed a protective glove for Therefore, a strategy for entering the field hockey market is so-called Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA), or medieval sword proposed. The most important quality of a field hockey glove should fighting. The glove is called the ProGauntlet. It has been designed to be that it does not restrain the user in any way. withstand high-impact blows from steel swords repeatedly, to protect the users’ hands from virtually any type of impact during HEMA. The suggested positioning for the field hockey market is therefore: unrestrained protection. A great advantage of this positioning is Not only do they protect very well, they also let the user move their that it could also work for the ProGauntlet and simultaneously opens hands naturally, without restricting the freedom of movement. It is a clear path to future innovations for CrossGuard. the ultimate HEMA glove, but as the HEMA market is relatively small, CrossGuard wants to make the ProGauntlet useful for other REAL-WORLD IMPLICATIONS purposes, too. Therefore the aim of this project has been to find the Partially due to this research, CrossGuard has started developing a next market for the ProGauntlet. glove for field hockey. 1 https://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/diagnostics/how-ibm-watson-overpromised-and-underdelivered-on-ai-health-care 2 In reality, it is a bit more nuanced of course, but this does appear to be one of the underlying causes. IV Table of contents 1. INTRODUCTION 6 Redesign Suggestions for a Field Hockey Glove 54 Introduction 7 7. BRANDING STRATEGY 56 2. PROJECT CONTEXT 9 4C Analysis 57 What Is the ProGauntlet? 10 Competition Axis 68 What Are Historical European Martial Arts? 11 Brand DNA 72 Consumers of the ProGauntlet 11 Positioning Statement 73 Company 12 The Future: Suggestions 74 Competitors in the HEMA Market 12 8. CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS 78 3. METHOD 15 Conclusions 79 Research Overview 16 Limitations of This Study 80 Literature Research 17 Discussion 80 User Research 18 Recommendations for Further Research 82 Strategy Development 19 9. PERSONAL REFLECTION 83 4. RESULTS OF THE MARKET EXPLORATION 20 Personal Reflection 84 Product Analysis 21 10. APPENDIX 88 Research Directions 28 Appendix 1: Project Brief 89 Literature Research Results 30 Appendix 2: Literature Research Findings 97 User Research Results 34 Appendix 3: Assessment of Product Fit per Market 126 Conclusions of the Market Exploration 39 Appendix 4: User Research Findings 128 5. THE NEXT STEPS 40 Appendix 5: Introducing the ProGauntlet in the FMA Market 153 The Next Market for the ProGauntlet 41 Appendix 6: Competitors in the Field Hockey Market 163 No Viable Market for the ProGauntlet: Now What? 43 11. REFERENCES 165 Redesign 44 6. THE NEXT MARKET FOR A REDESIGNED GLOVE 47 Field Hockey 48 V 1. Introduction 1. Introduction CrossGuard is highly interested in this type of research; they even Introduction called it “essential to the future of the company”. The HEMA market consists of an estimated 30,000 consumers worldwide. This is much This project is done in collaboration with CrossGuard. less than CrossGuard had initially estimated, which was around 65,000 consumers worldwide. This makes this project even more CrossGuard is a company that has developed a protective glove important for the future of the company. called the ProGauntlet. These gloves work like an exoskeleton that protects the hands against hard impacts without restricting the According to CrossGuard the HEMA market is large enough for the freedom of movement. company to run a sustainable business, but they will need to increase their market size in order to let the company grow. The ProGauntlet has been designed for Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA), also known as or medieval sword fighting. It has been CrossGuard has invested a lot of time and resources into the current designed to withstand high-impact blows from steel swords design and production process of the ProGauntlet. In the original repeatedly, to protect the users’ hands from virtually any type of design brief, the company had therefore made clear that the impact caused by the these swords. Without adequate hand technical changes in the design should be kept to an absolute protection, these blows would easily cause serious injuries. The minimum, preferably none at all. A redesign should only be ProGauntlet has been designed to offer an extremely high level of considered if this would be essential to sell the gloves in a different protection against repeated impacts. context or for a large market. CrossGuard has chosen for the market HEMA market particular due RESEARCH QUESTION to the personal interest of the founders, whose passion has been the ‣ Is there another market, besides the HEMA market, in which starting point of their quest to design the ultimate HEMA glove. The CrossGuard can sell the ProGauntlet? company has been developing the gloves for about six years now. They are shipping their first batch of pre-orders at this moment. - How should CrossGuard approach this market in terms of branding? PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT The ProGauntlet is an impressive product. It incorporates an - If there is no other viable market for the ProGauntlet, then what extremely high degree of impact protection in a relatively slim and is the most promising market for a redesigned glove? light package, while retaining nearly unobstructed freedom of movement of the fingers. This combination of qualities might be of ‣ The original project brief can be found in appendix 1 great value in other markets where impact protection and freedom of movement are necessary. The purpose of this project is to determine in which market(s) CrossGuard can launch the ProGauntlet, if any. 7 1. Introduction REPORT STRUCTURE In this report, the potential markets are analyzed and selection is made, in order to give strategic advice to CrossGuard. This has happened through a combination of literature research, user research and some real-life testing. The markets that are researched in-depth are: ice hockey, field hockey, lacrosse, kendo, Filipino martial arts and motorcycle riding. The research methods are described in the next section, followed by a more detailed description of the context of HEMA. Afterwards, the most important results of the market exploration are discussed. The full analyses are found in appendix 2 and 4. Based on the results, the next steps for entering another market are determined. After determining the next market for CrossGuard, the branding strategy for the market in question is described in the following chapter. At last, recommendations for the future of CrossGuard are made. 8 2. Project context 2. Project context It has been designed to withstand high-impact blows from steel What is the ProGauntlet? swords repeatedly, to protect the users’ hands from virtually any type of impact caused by the these swords. Without adequate hand The ProGauntlet is a protective glove with a hard outer shell. protection, these blows would easily cause serious injuries. The Although the ProGauntlet is usually referred to as a glove, the term ProGauntlet has been designed to offer an extremely high level of “exoskeleton” is actually more appropriate.