MAGIC5 BRAND VISITS
Will the cutting- edge tech of The Magic 5 finally put an end to leaky goggles? We meet the team and ambassador, Ironman pro Jan Frodeno, to find out more
Ireceived them a day or two before the super strict shutdown in Spain, and had few chances to try them out before my tri at home became the first 47:30min continuous test. They’ve been on my face ever since.” The ‘tri at home’ three-time and reigning Ironman world champion Jan Frodeno is referring to was a well-publicised virtual iron-distance event that raised more than £240,000 for healthcare institutions in Girona and initiatives supported by the Laureus Sport for Good fund. And the product that impressed during his 3.8km pool swim was a pair of goggles from tech start-up brand The Magic 5, who pledged – with the aid of cutting-edge technology – to end the long-standing bugbear of swimmers and triathletes the world over… leaky goggles.
“Swimmers and triathletes know goggles are a fiddly experience to get used to and everything out there is pretty average,” Frodeno says. “Too many let water in or leave pressure marks on your face. The guys offered me a pair to try and it was refreshing because they did what they promised. I’m swimming five to six days a week and they make every day better, which is what I love about them.”
From that iron test in April, Frodeno became a Magic 5 brand ambassador by August and then an investor in October. It’s not just a sign of his belief in the product, but a chunky endorsement for these new kids on the swim blocks because, for many, the German is the world’s finest current triathlete – and arguably the greatest ever.
Frodeno’s taken the sport to a new level though, concedes the 39-year-old, when it comes to swimming, it’s been achieved by going old school. “I rarely ever swim with gadgets and tools. What I love about swimming is the simplicity of the clock on the wall, working out my splits. There’s no point overcomplicating it.”
So, if he’s to shun the recent wave of hi-tech wizardry promising swimmers instant metrics and on-the-go stimulation (see Form goggles, reviewed last issue), what is it about a pair of goggles with a curious name that won him over? For that we need to take a trip to New York City via Denmark, China and North Carolina to try to answer the question: can I really stop my goggles leaking?
Rasmus Barfred is a 31-year-old Dane living in New York City and at pains to point out that although he’s completed a few Ironmans – and was once in the same swim squad as Olympian Rasmus Henning – he was never a professional athlete. But what he does have is an entrepreneurial spirit and the eye for a brilliant idea. So, when his likeminded friend Bo Haaber, an experienced software engineer and budding triathlete, called for some advice, it planted a seed.
“I was his go-to guy for gear recommendations,” Barfred, who was then working in mergers and acquisitions for a large chemical company, explains. “He was frustrated that he had to stop every 100m to empty his goggles. I gave him the depressing answer that I didn’t have a solution.”
The pair saw it as an opportunity; a problem to be solved. However, the challenge wasn’t just that the goggles leaked, but that they knew nothing about the industry. “Struck by my initial excitement, we booked a vacation and went to a big trade fair in South East China,” Barfred continues. “We knew that if we wanted to do this, we needed to do it right.”
They also needed to validate their hunch about widespread fitting issues. While many readers will already be nodding knowing heads, the market research had to be categorical. “We had 400 responses from Danish swimmers and triathletes, and 95 per cent had some kind of issue with the goggles related to the fit. Either goggle headaches or red rings around the eyes because they had to tighten them too much. Or they’d just leak.
“We proved we weren’t the only ones with this issue. Each person has a unique eye socket, but manufacturers had been trying to make this confined space leak-proof with a one-size-fits-all design. It didn’t really make sense.”
SMARTPHONE SOLUTION
Out of the water, Rasmus’ vision was becoming far clearer. Compatriot Niklas Hedegaard, a professional swimmer for more than a decade, became the third co-founder and the trio realised there was little future in developing and marketing goggles costing several hundred dollars that would only appeal to a narrow section of the market. The product had to be affordable for the masses. “It didn’t matter if it was Jan Frodeno or someone like my mum who swims twice a week but spends most of the time in the sauna.”
The novel solution lay in utilising mobile phone camera technology. Would-be customers download The Magic 5 app, scan their facial features and then, behind the scenes, the brand produces a 3D model that its goggles are customised to fit. Rasmus explains: “It was important that we could develop tech that was in people’s pockets and didn’t require them to go into a retail store. This allows us to market direct to customers. The strap is the same for everyone, the glass the same for everyone, but the gasket that touches your face is 100% bespoke for everyone – that’s where the magic happens!”
The price point is kept down by sourcing the non-personalised components, such as the strap and glass, from China. The closest match for the nose bridge will be picked out from several variations with any discrepancy accounted for in the custom gasket.
But from the depth of the eye socket to the width of the nose, just how different can our facial structures be? Would a choice of, say, half-a-dozen moulds suffice? That’s not how it works. “The curvature of the gasket will be completely different for everyone. If there are 100 pairs of goggles, it’s 100 different fits. We get an order and our production guy gets to work.”
“We had 400 responses from swimmers and triathletes. ˣ §Ð§§Â ʌĝé ÛÞÐ Â Èʗ
CONTINUAL REFINEMENT
By 2017, there was enough functionality in a smartphone camera to consolidate image data and produce a 3D model for a prototype, but the initial face scan wasn’t where the core of the business lay.
“We knew that developing the 3D model of your face based on a phone camera would be a crowded space – you can imagine Apple would like to own it as part of the core hardware. We just wanted a 3D model that was as good as it had to be to prove our hypothesis and, as soon as we could, we’d license third-party software. It’s a commodity, it’s not our core.”
It’s the next step – where the goggle is fitted to the 3D model and then put into production to produce the bespoke gasket – that The Magic 5 is patenting. “We’re applying it to swimming goggles right now, but we can apply it to other products, too,” Barfred says. “It takes a huge set of algorithms to manage and is the most important part of our Coca-Cola recipe. I’d love to show you, but until our patent is approved, we just can’t.” Rasmus doesn’t want any leaks. And he doesn’t want any leaks.
The process extends beyond the initial fit. Customers are asked for feedback 14 days after receiving the goggles. If something is amiss, a oneto-one consultation finds out whether the problem occurred during the scanning or fitting phase, and it’s logged in a process of continual refinement.
It’s also a global operation. Components arrive from China, expertise and insight from Europe, sales and marketing from New York, and then it all comes together for final customisation in Charlotte, North Carolina. From there, the Magic 5 goggles are shipped the world over, with delivery taking up to five days in the US and two weeks internationally.
Barfred says the customer doesn’t have the “wow experience” in one in every hundred pairs, a leap up from the industry average, and complete opposite of his initial 400-swimmer
questionnaire. When it occurs, they tinker with the fitting technology or ask for a fresh scan. He estimates the problem can be fixed in nine of every 10 cases. The final last one they’ll simply apologise and refund. “It’s just a data issue,” he says. “There are just some people who have a face where we just can’t make it work. But it’s very few.”
One issue that may take a little longer to crack is swimmers’ other big bugbear – fogging lenses. “We struggle the same as the rest of the market,” Rasmus admits. “If there’s an anti-fog issue we hear about it, but we’re confident we know what’s available. It’s pretty much the same chemical coating that’s applied on the inside of all the glass, and there’s a certain lifetime to it.”
It’s another reason in keeping the price point affordable. Once goggles start fogging up, many are rejected – although you could, in theory, swap out the lenses. Initially expected to retail at $80-100 a pair, The Magic 5 realised how much greater the uptake would be if they could reduce the price to $65.
THE MAGIC NUMBER
The name also jumps out. Where did The Magic 5 originate from and why? “I asked a friend who’s a brand consultant to help,” Barfred explains. “I told him we were making a new swimming goggle with 95% of the product the same as the other brands, but the last 5% being where the magic happens to make sure it fits the customer 100%. When he heard that he instantly knew what the name should be, but took us through the brand session so we could discover it for ourselves.
“It tells you how we work with products and tech. We don’t reinvent everything. We use technology only where it makes sense. It’s given us the foundation to not only produce swimming goggles but use our technology across different products and industries in the future.”
For now, Barfred won’t expand on their ambitions and The Magic 5 also won’t expand its product range to the breadth of the likes of Speedo. But they do want as many swimmers as possible to enjoy the brand. “It’s difficult to put a number on it, but if I go to a pool anywhere in the western world in the next few years, I’d like to see people swimming in The Magic 5, and that requires we have 5% of the market. From the 35million who swim at least once a month in the US, and a similar volume in Europe, that’s where we want to be.”