ROKA Wins International Red Dot Award for Excellence in Product Design
ROKA Sports, Inc. today announced it has received the prestigious Red Dot Award: Product Design for its R1 goggle, a new swim design that combines innovative engineering, optics and architecture with the advantages of ROKA’s patent-pending RAPIDSIGHT™ technology. The goggle proved its excellence in the most prestigious international competition for product design, which this year included a record 5,214 products from 57 nations.
Comparing R1 to the current standards for performance swim goggles, the jury recognized ROKA’s breakthroughs in achieving major improvements. ROKA began the process by redesigning existing optics and literally turning eyewear design on its head, and rethinking the plane of movement for the specific application of swimming. An innovative design and manufacturing process greatly reduced the architecture along the top frame, and ROKA further optimized the goggle with a precise retroscopic lens angle. The result is RAPIDSIGHT, a technology that radically expands athletes’ forward field of vision while in the head-down swimming position, so targets can be sighted with less disruption to swim form and mechanics.
Rob Canales, Co-Founder and CEO of ROKA said, “ROKA has been on a mission for two years to rethink goggle design and optimize the mechanics of sighting to improve speed and reduce energy expenditure. RAPIDSIGHT technology addresses those critical issues and delivers a distinct competitive advantage. Offering an expanded field of view, it helps lead swimmers sight buoys faster and with less effort, and it allows followers to stay ‘on the feet’ of leading swimmers more easily.”
Benefits of the innovative product go beyond RAPIDSIGHT technology. Unlike conventional swim goggles with excess bulk that sacrifices hydrodynamics for comfort and field of view, the ROKA R1 utilizes a smaller form factor that maintains comfort while minimizing drag. For the optics, a crystal-clear view is made possible by a premium grade polycarbonate that represents the benchmark of performance clarity in the goggle industry. The R1 also features SPCTRM™, a purpose-built lens tint collection optimized for environmental and light conditions.
Professor Dr. Peter Zec, founder and president of the Red Dot Award said, “The Red Dot winners not only demonstrated extraordinary design quality — they showed that design is an integral part of innovative product solutions.”
Canales added, “Our foundation is built on innovation and the passion that drives performance. The R1 is a shining example of our commitment to those things. ROKA’s mission is to inspire confidence in athletes as they strive to reach their full potential. That level of confidence requires products that redefine the performance standard, and because we’re athletes ourselves, it’s a challenge we’re proud to tackle. The R1 continues the heritage we’re building every day.”
About the Red Dot Design Award
In order to appraise the wide scope of design in a professional manner, the Red Dot Design Award is broken down into the three distinct disciplines: the Red Dot Award: Product Design, Red Dot Award: Communication Design and Red Dot Award: Design Concept. The Red Dot Award is organised by the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen in Essen, Germany. With more than 17,000 entries in 2015 alone, it is one of the largest competitions in the world. It was in 1955 that a jury convened for the first time to assess the best designs of the day. The name and brand of the award were developed in the 1990s by Red Dot CEO, Professor Dr. Peter Zec. Since then the sought-after “Red Dot” is the revered international seal of outstanding design quality. Further information: www.red-dot.org.
