Introducing repair in sports' consumables

Ondertitel:investigation of repairability of badminton shuttles

Environmental sustainability in sport management is emerging as a topic of concern. The current paper reports on a study that address the desirability and feasibility of repair solutions in the domain of sport equipment with a short lifespan. A badminton shuttle is taken as a case study. By means of video observations (n = 8), a survey among badminton players (n = 404) and an expert interview, the desirability issue was addressed. A research by design approach was used to gain insights in the feasibility of repairing feathered badminton shuttles taking into consideration three important elements: disassembly, reassembly and quality control. Feathered badminton shuttles do have an impact on the environment as they are on averaged bought and used at an amount of 133 shuttles per player per season and discarded in more than 97% of the cases after use. Users of shuttles are triggered by cost savings and by environmental consequences of repair, but still prefer recycling above repairing as a sustainable strategy. They have a slightly preference for a full service option for repairable shuttles, but consider possible alternatives to get access to repairable product as too abstract. The repair process of the feathered shuttle is technical feasible, convenient, time efficient and cost efficient and results in good quality products. Though, the research was conducted using a mix of methods and approached diverse topics of concern when considering repair of consumable sport equipment, researchers ask for further investigation as well to deepen insights in adoption processes of repairable products, to strengthen insights in design processes for repair as to conceive appropriate business models for this emerging product-service category.

Jaar van publicatie:2021

Trefwoorden:A1 Journal article

Toegankelijkheid:Closed