Disrupting an established market through innovation in manufacturing and user insight-driven design.

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Watko wanted to create a Goal and Field of play that could work in water for swimming pools, in the sea and on lakes. It needs to be light, compact, highly durable and low cost and of course float. Beyond that, it had to be innovative and bring outstanding functionality to beat an established list of competitors.

Luckily for us, competitor analysis highlighted a potentially clear gap in the market for a better design, both in function and aesthetics and hopefully at a considerably lower price.  The question just remained, how exactly could we do it? Borrowing inspiration from Decathlon extensive experience on high quality, but affordable inflatable tent solutions, we were able to utilize its core technology and repurpose it for water polo.  The idea of an inflatable goal, using rugged tent-like material, that could be inflated and deflated, and transported by two people was born.

Extensive liaison with overseas factors and production visits ensured a fast and realistic product execution. We created multiple rounds of production prototypes, followed by testing with real users and selecting the perfect materials. We were able to deliver Watko their most complex product to date and within the original design brief.

The result was a goal that could be sold at one-tenth of the price of competitors, whilst providing an enhanced user experience, opening purchasing opportunities to individuals and not just clubs.