JLL sponsorship of rock climbers includes provision of cutting-edge technology

October 2, 2019

Global real estate company JLL is sponsoring six of the world’s most talented young rock climbers through a new campaign - Stories of Ambition.

JLL will provide all the athletes with a world-class coach, the latest training facilities and cutting-edge technology that includes motion-capture climbing suits, to help them reach the next level.

The sport will make its debut at the summer Olympics in 2020 and the group will be training hard until then in the hope of making their countries proud.

As part of the campaign, JLL will sponsor the climbers who all hail from the Asia Pacific region to help them achieve one really big ambition - making it onto the world stage. The exciting line-up features Australia’s Angie Scarth-Johnson (aged 15, Blue Mountains, NSW); Emmanuel Ryan-Paul (aged 20, Singapore); Mark Chan (aged 18, Singapore); Yau Ka-chun (aged 26, Hong Kong); Karin Kojima (aged 17, Japan) and Siddhi Manerikar (aged 22, India).

In order to succeed at the Olympics, athletes will need to excel across the three main disciplines of climbing - bouldering, lead and speed. As part of their sponsorship, JLL is engaging expert climbing legend Ian Dunn, Great Britain’s team climbing coach.

The athletes will be assisted by Dunn as he helps them navigate the ups and downs of training and their use of the motion-capture climbing suit which uses advanced sensor fusion technology to analyse a climber’s movements and turn it into kinematic data. JLL commissioned the creation of the motion-capture climbing suit working closely with its partners, global multimedia and digital marketing company Dentsu Aegis Network and Digital agency Isobar (also under Dentsu Aegis Network).

JLL Australia Chief Executive, Stephen Conry, noted that the campaign and sponsorship was a perfect fit for the company which is renowned for its building and investment projects throughout Asia Pacific and the rest of the world, focusing on industrial, commercial, retail, residential and hotel real estate.

Conry advised "our brand promise ‘achieve ambitions’, runs through everything we do at JLL. Like our clients, the athletes have big ambitions and we’re passionate about helping people and businesses both big and small achieve their ambitions. We also understand cities and the urban environment and how that influences the way the athletes live and train.

“As these athletes have big dreams to make it onto the world stage, we want to help them get there. We hope our clients and people everywhere are inspired by them. In the case of Angie, she possesses such extraordinary ambition and commitment for someone so young. We often get involved in worthwhile community initiatives and causes so we’re thrilled to get behind her.

“Technology has become massive in sport these days, but I haven’t seen anything that specifically addresses the needs of elite climbers. Rock climbing is such a technical sport and most of our athletes specialise in only one of the three disciplines included in the new combined format. Having technology that can help them visualise their movements and compare climbs from every angle should prove to be immensely beneficial.”

Throughout their training, the athletes will use a motion-capture system featuring advanced sensor fusion technology which turns any climbing wall into a ‘smart’ one. The tracking modules are easily attached to a body suit that the climber wears. 16 high performance motion tracking sensors will track the key movements of the climber during their ascent turning it into kinematic data which is processed and visualised into a dynamic 360° action-replay.

The sensors capture an athlete’s posture and movements without having to rely on cumbersome video camera set ups. Being camera-free also enables the capture of data that cannot seen by video cameras which depend on the line of sight. The smart suit format is designed to be highly mobile and makes it easy for athletes to bring the suit along to any training location for use.

Dunn continued "in the past, a coach simply eyeballed a climber from below and was not able to get a clear look at limbs that were moving too fast or blocked from their view. With this technology, hundreds of thousands of kinematic data points are captured for each climb and used to recreate their climb virtually in an online 3D software.”

The data is projected on a bio-mechanical model in the software which can then be exported and uploaded to a web application. This allows coaches and climbers to analyse feedback and share climb data with each other anywhere in the world. Each climb can be reviewed remotely with training suggestions marked against specific timestamps through mobile tablet software for data analysis and visualisation.

The appetite for climbing is currently booming in cities around the world. Participation rates have grown by 400% since 2007, with 25 million people estimated to be regularly taking part in the activity worldwide. Viewership of competitive climbing has also rapidly increased with TV stations ESPN and Sky now regularly screening coverage since 2017. Despite its popularity, the sport is still heavily underfunded worldwide. In 2017, it accounted for less than 0.01% of American, Russian, European and Japanese funding.

Conry added "this sponsorship and campaign is one of the most exciting we’ve ever undertaken. We’re here to create rewarding opportunities and amazing spaces around the globe where people can achieve their ambitions. We want to build a better tomorrow for our clients, our people and our communities. Importantly, we want to inspire. In supporting these remarkable young people, we aim to achieve that and make a real difference by helping them realise their dreams.”

Click here for JLL's Stories of Ambition initiative.

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