Sources and Patterns of Innovation in a Consumer Products Field: Innovations in Sporting Equipment

This study investigates the innovation histories of 57 important skateboarding, snowboarding, and windsurfing equipment innovations. Contrary to conventional wisdom, equipment for these new sports was not developed by existing sports equipment manufacturing companies. Innovations were instead developed by a few early and active participants in the new sports - users who built innovative equipment for themselves, their friends, and often built businesses focused on producing such equipment in order to appropriate benefit from their innovations and establish a lifestyle around the sport.