A participant held a bow and aimed at the target. The place where he stood, who was seriously shooting his bow, was a virtual space, not an actual archery field. Even at the virtual archery range, you could experience not only wind strength and direction, but also shoot-off technology that measures up to 0.001mm units. The participant said, "I shot the bow with tension as if I had become a member of the Olympic national team."
The virtual archery range was "Target X," a digital archery product created by Sponier, a subsidiary of archery equipment developer Fibix. In addition to the long line of Target X, there was also a visit to the Dragon 5 smart target shooting experience, where you can enjoy laser shooting. An online system equipped with a microcomputer and a high-speed camera is connected to a cloud server, allowing the general public to easily experience shooting. It is a sport that is difficult to encounter in everyday life, but virtual reality (VR) and new information technology (IT) have narrowed the distance from people.
The "2025 Seoul International Sports and Leisure Industry Exhibition" will be held at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul for four days from the 27th, where you can experience the future of the domestic sports industry as well as various new technologies. SPOEX, first held in Olympic Park in 2001, allows you to experience everything in the sports industry in one place. This year, 319 sports-related companies, including health, fitness, and sports clothing, participated and opened 1,720 booths. Yoon Jin-sik, chairman of the Korea International Trade Association, Ha Hyung-joo, chairman of the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation, and Jang Mi-ran, the second vice minister of culture, sports and tourism, attended the opening ceremony of the event.
The most eye-catching place for visitors on the first day was the SPO-TECH Special Planning Officer, which combines sports and high-tech technology. In particular, visitors were crowded at booths where 14 promising Korean sports companies, which participated in CES 2025, the world's largest home appliance and IT exhibition in Las Vegas, Nevada, in January and won the award, presented the latest sports technology and innovative products.
Experiential content solution X-RUNNER is an extended reality (XR) technology-based platform that allows users to enjoy sports content while moving freely in a virtual space without wearing goggles and glasses. At this year's CES, it won two innovation awards in the metaverse and content and entertainment sectors.
Jung Hae-hyun, CEO of Newzak, which developed X-Runner, said, "People have less opportunities to exercise using computers and smartphones. In the U.S., they are very interested in the X-Runner platform, thinking it is a solution that will solve social problems, he said. "We will expand our experience opportunities through shopping malls in Korea."
In addition, companies that participated in CES 2025 attracted a lot of attention by introducing domestic visitors to MediStep, which analyzes a person's walking posture and suggests the right way to walk, AI EcoCare, which enables easier and faster echocardiography with AI technology, and smart golf balls that can manage putt data by adding cloud technology and smart sensors during golf putting practice.
Indoor bicycles, which received the CES Innovation Award last year, also attracted people for the advantage of experiencing a sense of realism like riding outdoors and fitness services based on driving information. A solution that provides customized exercise prescriptions through simple health information and physical examinations, and screen climbing based on augmented reality (AR) were also new technologies that attracted attention.
A virtual reality experience space studio was created in the Special Planning Hall for Professional Sports such as soccer, baseball, basketball, and golf. Chairman Ha Hyung-joo received a lot of applause when he scored by attempting a virtual reality penalty at the soccer experience studio.
The Special Planning Center for Professional Sports will also hold daily classes for current and former professional players, including golf, soccer, and baseball. On this day, former professional baseball player Jung Geun-woo gave a one-point lesson, Park In-bee, the "Golf Empress" is scheduled on the 28th, and Kim Kyung-tae, who has 20 wins in professional golf, and Cho Won-hee, a former national soccer team, are scheduled on the 29th.
In addition, 30 overseas purchasing companies will be invited to hold export consultations to arrange meetings with 120 domestic sports companies, and investment matching consultations with 15 sports investment companies and 40 domestic sports companies. Chairman Ha said, "We hope that it will be an opportunity for domestic and foreign sports companies to exchange and for the people to experience sports more closely," adding, "The biggest goal is to strengthen the competitiveness of the sports industry and increase public interest in sports."
[Reporter Kim Jihan]
