THE sight of runners clutching bottles of water as they pound the streets may soon be a lot less common.
Two Glasgow-based entrepreneurs have designed and launched what is believed to be the world's first hydration armband for runners, freeing athletes from the burden of carrying cumbersome bottles.
Belinda Goldsmith and Christine Manson hatched the idea for Fitsip while working out with Kelvin Runners, an amateur club based in the city's west end.
The pair had been looking for a new venture when their connection to Simply Organic, the soup company they created and ran for a decade before selling to Serious Food Group, ended around four years ago.
With Ms Goldsmith living "within a stone's throw" from Glasgow University, they approached its School of Engineering for technical help and support.
The institution provided a grant of £5000 from its First Step Award programme, which supports partnerships between academics and business people, to meet the initial research costs.
Further grants came from the Sporting Chance Initiative, which helps small businesses in Scotland develop sports products, Scottish Enterprise Innovation Support and Starter for Six, an enterprise programme.
Ms Goldsmith and Ms Manson have also committed "significant" personal funds to the project, but declined to say what the total investment has been to date.
Ms Goldsmith said: "It's taken three years and quite a lot of time and money has been put in. It is not always that easy to find out about sources of funding, that is the only thing I would say.
"There is some small funding available but you also have to put your own neck on the line as well."
Fitsip has three main components: an armband made of breathable fabric, a refillable water pod contained within the armband that can hold just over 200ml, and a silicone, one-way bite valve that releases the water.
Dr Ian Watson from the university's engineering school worked with the entrepreneurs on a range of prototypes. Many failed to get off the ground because the water pod leaked due to the force of the running action. The final design includes a special cap that prevents the problem.
Dr Watson said Fitsip's commercial prospects made it an attractive project to work on.
He said: "It was a novel idea and I felt there was a market need there [for the product]. It was just good to work on a product where there was market potential and a clear path to market."
Fitsip has been available to buy online for the past four weeks, priced £23.99, and the owners ultimately hope to have it listed in the UK's 200 specialist running shops, including Achilles Heel in Glasgow's west end.
Their immediate goal is to spread the word about Fitsip within the running community.
Fitsips will be offered as prizes this Sunday at the Glenlivet 10k, which takes place in the Cairngorm National Park, and will also be marketed to runners over the course of the racing season.
The entrepreneurs are already looking at possible extensions to the Fitsip brand for the running market.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article