The Innovations Story

Since 1983 Sportime has been redefining Physical Education equipment, and in so doing has helped redefine Physical Education itself!

"First introduced in 1983, Innovations are an expression of Sportime's belief that the Physical Education arena can be one of Inclusion, Cooperation, Critical Thinking, Initiative and Interdisciplinary Education. Our position as the world's leading supplier of physical education equipment has proved us right."

Barry Traub, MS. ED - Senior VP

Innovations

The original intent of the Innovations product section was to make it easy for you, the Physical Education teacher, to discover new tools with which to teach. Sportime Innovations is the one section in all the catalogs on your desk that is fully devoted to providing you with these new tools. As your profession has come under increased scrutiny, the importance of doing more than "rolling out the ball" has also grown. New tools and new teaching concepts are your best bet for raising the visibility of your program in your community. Innovations started in 1983, with the then unusual use of the color yellow for products. Yellow was chosen in order to maximize the potential for eye-hand and eye-foot activity success.

From that simple beginning, we've gone on to develop many more skill trainers, plus multi-disciplinary products to teach math and literacy skills to kinesthetic learners: Ranging from the VB-Trainer^TM to the BeanBagZoo^TM, and from the Physio-Roll^TM to the JumpKone Adapter System^TM, Innovations products are recognized and used throughout the world.

Many of the products are developed by Barry Traub, but we've also recognized the existence of untapped genius just waiting to be discovered... you and your peers, professional Physical Educators with great ideas for day-to-day teaching success.

There is a financial opportunity for creative individuals to earn additional income, through a generous lifetime royalty program. In partnership with teachers, we've helped to bring numerous products into the Physical Education arena; products ranging from VA Physical Educator Jim Kiser's "Pull Up Assistant^TM," to 9-year-old student Chris Haas's Hands-On^TM Basketball; from North Carolina Physical Educator Pam Reimer's BonkerBall^TM, to Denver dance teachers Bonnie Berman's & Sally Loo's MoveCubes^TM. For more information on how to submit product ideas, click here.

Inclusion
Sportime continues to design, products to bring the late Dr. Muska Mosston's philosophy of inclusion to a physical reality. Muska said himself that "Sportime products are the physical manifestation of the philosophies of The Spectrum." We changed weights, sizes, textures, and more, to eliminate the fear of trying, and provide children with ways to find their own "levels of success."

In 1988 the introduction of the 25% larger and 40% lighter VB-Trainer^TM, forever changed the way volleyball would be taught and has become the most copied volleyball in the world.

Cognition
Since 1985 (years before research would prove us right), Sportime products incorporated cognitive elements to maximize the opportunities of "Kinesthetic Learners."

We did it by maintaining a systematic pattern of using the 3 primary and 3 secondary colors; associating each color with the same numbers, supporting dots, and multilingual words and phrases.

In 1998 that exact same cognitive pattern can be found on every Sportime product now sold in more than 20 countries around the world.

But we're much, much more than just products…

Now There's pe-talk And adapt-talk
In 1995 Sportime provided an ongoing grant for the establishment of a non-commercial, worldwide, Internet communications Environment.

By April 1998, its 3,700 subscribers (5,000 projected by the end of the year) have made pe-talk the world's largest Physical Education Internet Community. The addition of adapt-talk (formerly ulrich_adapted@indiana.edu) and APENS (Adapted Physical Education National Standards) has made pe-talk the world's most significant information source to Adapted Physical Activities.

With many thousands of informative messages in its searchable archives, pe-talk is fast becoming the world's most comprehensive physical education resource center.

Supporting And Enhancing Professionals
Believing that we had to seek guidance from the "Best" in the teaching field, in 1989 we established the Sportime Board of Consultants.

Next, understanding that a company should provide no-strings-attached financial support to the profession it serves, Sportime International agreed to the ongoing and financially significant support of NASPE programs, as well as a myriad of other programs like "SPARK" (Sports, Play, & Active Participation for Kids).

With industry professionals, NASPE Teachers of the Year Program and Ed Services Workshops, no company puts more money and effort back into the Physical Education field than Sportime.

In 1988, Sportime became the sole support of the "COPEC" (NASPE's Council on Physical Education for Children) Elementary School Teacher of the Year Program, and would soon do the same for "MASPEC" (NASPE's Middle and Secondary Physical Education Council).

Dr. Billy Gober became the Sportime Director of Educational Services and developed a program that would lead to our involvement in over 100 professional workshops a year.

Many of those workshops are led by current and past "TOYs;" members of our world-renowned "Board of Consultants." This was a result of our non-commercial contributions to the profession.

In 1994, Sportime received the National Recognition Award to become the first company to be so honored by NASPE.

From Innovations, to partnerships with teachers, to the support of national and worldwide initiatives, Sportime has always stayed on the front lines of promoting the importance of quality Physical Education.