Long time SMA Members Biochemist Simon Bartold and Podiatrist Paul Griffin developed a shoe specifically for the Belgian Red Devils hockey team competing in the Tokyo Olympics.

Combing their 27 years of experience, this duo worked ambitiously on a tight 12-month time frame to develop the best performance based and technical field hockey shoe on the market with OsakaWorld, a premium product brand based in Antwerp, Belgium. The goal was to create a sophisticated and highly technical hockey shoe to assist in the success of the team at the Tokyo Olympics. This process included working closely with the Belgium team athletes to ensure that every detail of the shoe was considered.

Simon Bartold said, “The OsakaWorld motto is ‘the athlete comes first’, and that’s how it should be!”

On August 5 2021 players from the Belgian Red Devils wore that shoe, the Osaka Ido Mk1 to Olympic Glory and the Gold Medal beating the Australian Kookaburras.

Although the Red Devils winning gold in the newly developed shoes was a huge success, the pair did admit it felt strange beating out against their home country.

SMA would like to congratulate Simon and Paul on this huge achievement and look forward to seeing where this project leads them next.