Established in 1999 and based in Cambridge, England, Innovia Technology... innovation and new business development for leading companies such as...

Established in 1999 and based in Cambridge, England, Innovia Technology specialises in breakthrough
innovation and new business development for leading companies such as Arena, Procter & Gamble, Shell,
Boeing, Ford, Pepsi and Kraft. Working at the front end of innovation, the company’s highly qualified and
diverse teams integrate the best thinking in technology, design, consumer insight and manufacturing to
create exciting new concepts that can be brought to market efficiently.
Innovia’s first engagement with Arena started in 2008 on the Powerskin X-Glide project, where the
company played a key role in helping design a breakthrough product. For the Powerskin Carbon-Pro
initiative, the Innovia team identified actionable technical benefits, demonstrating how the garment
provides support without detracting from the swimmer’s mobility.
Innovia Technology
www.innoviatech.com
Kintetech Labs, a division of Tessitura Taiana, produces high-performance technical fabrics that help the
human body perform at its best when engaged in high-level sports activities. The Lab’s modus operandi is
based on a culture of research, constant experimentation, and above all, physical tests to offer athletes a
tool that can optimize sporting performance.
Lab chief Matteo Taiana has personally been working with Arena for over five years, collaborating on three
prior generations of the Powerskin family before taking on the Carbon-Pro project. The rigidity of carbon
provided its own set of challenges, and the final result was achieved after several rounds of trial and error,
as well as exhaustive testing.
Kinetech
www.kinetechlab.com
Professor Giorgio Gatta of the University of Bologna’s Faculty of Exercise and Sport Sciences first started
collaborating with Arena after the Beijing Olympics in order to do research on the company’s full-body
swimsuits of the time. A series of meetings between the two parties established a mutual interest in the
continuous exchange of knowledge, which over the years has turned into a partnership of close
collaboration.
The University’s Arena-related research is based primarily on the effects of water resistance, and ultimately
the drag that a swimmer experiences in the water. Using the impressive facilities at Bologna’s extensive
Record Sports Centre, special software analyzes films of swimmers in motion in order to determine the
effect of drag on body position, while muscular effects are assessed through the measurement of electric
currents from active muscles, lactic acid production, and oxygen consumption. In this way the performance
levels of different swimsuits can be compared, and the effects of Arena’s technological developments
determined.
University of Bologna
Facoltà di Scienze Motorie
Current: Dipartimento di Embriologia e Biologia Applicata, Bologna
Future: Dipartimento di Scienze per la qualità della vita, Rimini
www.sm.unibo.it
www.dieba.unibo.it
Since its establishment in 1961, Macpi spa Pressing Division has specialized in the production of pressing
machinery for the Clothing Industry. Over the course of its history, the company has contributed
significantly to the development of pressing techniques, revolutionizing and constantly improving one of
the most complicated stages of garment production. One of Macpi’s earliest innovations was the design of
the first continuous fusing machine for jackets.
Macpi was at the forefront of the emergence of seamless garments in the first decade of the 21st century,
and developed industry-leading expertise in the bonding process. It has continued to maintain its leadership
role in the field through its hi-tech line of bonding machines. These bonding processes have become central
to the design and effectiveness of the Powerskin Carbon range of swimsuits.
Macpi spa Pressing Division
www.macpi.com
Biomechanics Professor Redha Taiar of the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne first started working with
Arena and textile maestro Michel Joseph in 1994, at a time when the company was sponsoring legendary
Russian swimmer Alexander Popov. Now in its eighteenth year, Professor Taiar’s continuing work with Arena
has travelled the full gamut of swimsuit technology developments over that period, and there is arguably noone outside Arena that knows its technology and products as well as he does.
While Professor Taiar participates on several aspects of Arena’s new projects, his most focused work takes
place at the Berlin High Performance Olympic Centre’s Flume, a specially constructed facility that directs water
through a narrow channel. Here data taken from athletes swimming in the Flume is analyzed and interpreted,
providing important information on the influence that different swimsuits have on key data such as body
position, stability, and drag. Professor Taiar’s 20 years of experience working with world class athletes provides
further unique insight into the interpretation of results and proposal of adjustments.
University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne
UFR Sciences et Techniques des Activités Physiques et Sportives (STAPS)
www.univ-reims.fr
www.redha-taiar.com