I had to stop partway through, because the survey asks about my gear as if it's a single unit. I have about a dozen different pieces I use (not all at once - several options for some pieces). Some, for instance, are comfortable, breathable, and don't limit movement. Some are hot and un-breathable. Some limit range of movement somewhat. I can't rate them on a single answer. You may wish to narrow the focus of your survey to a single item (gloves, or headgear, or foot protectors, or...), and ask participants to reply based upon the one they use most - their "primary _____".
Thanks for the feedback - we kept the focus of the survey broad because the purpose of the survey is less to gather specific answers, and more to confirm that there is a problem with sparring gear in the community. We're trying to make sure that the problem that we first defined (uncomfortable, breaks easily, etc) is actually a problem, and not just our group members having bad quality sparring gear.
Then perhaps the survey should ask questions like, "Have you experienced any of the following problems with your sparring gear..." And that could follow-up with questions about the price range/quality of the affected gear (I have gear that cost anywhere from under $10 to nearly $100 for a single part - some here will have paid more for some of theirs). This would help you isolate what segment of the market you are looking at. If you want to solve the problems with low-end gear (there are more problems there to work on), you'll need to know that limitation. If you want to solve problems not yet solved (so not solved in high-end gear), you'll have fewer options to solve, but fewer restrictions on potential production costs.
That makes sense - I'll work on changing around some of the questions on the survey to better isolate what people have problems with. Thanks!
I don't know how many martial artists you have on your team. As you are reworking the survey, you may want to enlist some opinions in advance of publishing it. Folks who use the gear can tell you whether the survey is allowing them to accurately transmit the kind of information you are looking for.
Hi Quarren42. I took your survey and hope it helps. The main problem with gear as I see it is primarily heat retention followed by bulkiness. Both necessary evils I assume, but if your engineering team were to pick one item to work on it should be expelling heat through less bulky materials. Anyone can find adequate protective gear since there are so many options, but to be fully protected usually means wearing very bulky, clumsy, and hot gear. If someone were to incorporate cooling mechanisms such as the high evaporation technology that is used for some neck wraps available or to incorporate some various materials such as internal light weigh plates with foam and perforations, it would help a great deal.
I took your survey, but I think it would benefit from having a comments section. Since it didn't, here are my comments:
Here's an impossible task for the engineers: make protective gear that doesn't seem protective. Headgear that doesn't seem to protect the head (but does, at least a bit). Gloves that don't make the punches feel easier on the hand, but reduce the bruising and cuts on the other end. And so on.
