Grip: an Internet-Enabled Virtual Coaching Experience

You’re at your local climbing wall in the middle of a gruelling bouldering session. You’re sweaty. You’re frustrated. No matter how you contort yourself, or how much effort you put in, you just can’t figure out how to do the final move of the problem you’ve been working on for a week. What if you had an expert coach standing beside you, and a world class athlete demonstrating her technique? Think that might just do it?

Uniform has explored and experimented with team sports such as football and cricket. These sports are a passion of ours, and of numerous brands we work with. But what about those of us who like a different kind of sport? The lone hillwalkers, swimmers, yoga enthusiasts and climbers? What does grassroots participation look like here and how can we grow it? 

Enter Grip.

Born in Uniform’s magical and provocative workshop, and recently back from demonstrations at SXSW, Grip saw us focus on the collective individual’s experience of sport. Informed by our research into the future of sport, Grip is an internet-enabled virtual coaching experience starring British Boulder Champion Shauna Coxsey and her coach, Mark Glennie.

Using RFID technology, Internet-enabled climbing holds and virtual reality, Grip uses IoT and VR to teach, celebrate and gamify indoor climbing. The potential for Grip doesn’t stop here, as the core tenets of try - learn - achieve - reward translate across every sport we can imagine.