Industrial - Bachelor
RAYZR REGENER8 aims to reduce the frequency and severity of non-contact overuse knee ligament injuries in female sprint athletes. This smart haptic sprint spike helps female athletes recognise their limits, enabling them to train harder but also smarter, therefore reducing the risk of losing hard earned progress to serious injury.
“Athletes have a ‘no pain, no gain’ mindset, and that’s really not the right way to approach it. If you have pain, it’s your body’s way of indicating something.”
– Get better physiotherapy
Female sprint athletes are prone to anterior cruciate ligament injuries due to a combination of physiological, biomechanical and hormonal risk factors. With ACLs that are on average twenty to thirty per cent smaller and a wider Q-angle between the hips and the knees, female athletes are two to eight times more likely to sustain an ACL overuse injury than their male counterparts. When these ligaments are placed under repeated high impact during sprint training, the risk increases further. A serious ACL injury almost always requires surgical intervention, and only fifty-five per cent of athletes return to their sport following reconstruction surgery, highlighting the significance of this issue. The mental and emotional recovery is equally demanding, as many athletes lose confidence, motivation and years of progress in the sport they love. Current sprint spikes offer little consideration for female specific metrics or strenuous training demands, providing minimal support and therefore increasing the likelihood of injury.
“At the time I didn’t think it was that bad, so I kept training until I couldn’t anymore.”
– female athlete in acl injury rehab
Through a combination of interviews, focus groups and observations with individuals who have first hand experience in this context, the primary research aimed to identify the key factors contributing to ACL injury in female athletes. Three consistent themes emerged, these included limited body awareness, inefficient movement mechanics and inadequate fatigue management. Many female athletes did not recognise early signs of fatigue, such as muscular compensation or changes in sprint mechanics, until these issues resulted in injury. When combined with biomechanical factors such as pronation, knee valgus and the tendency to train beyond physical limits, these conditions created a heightened risk of overuse and ACL injury.
Body awareness was a key theme across all interviews and observations. The athletes’ ability to recognise fatigue, discomfort, and early warning signs was crucial in managing training and reducing injury risk.
WHAT WAS FOUND
Athletes are used to pushing through pain, not realising how severe the problem is until it becomes a serious injury
Athletes often aren’t aware of their personal fatigue levels or inefficient movement mechanics, putting them at higher risk for injury.
Coaches observed that athletes often only take action once pain becomes severe.
It was observed that self-awareness influenced how athletes made preventative decisions and managed recovery.
WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT
Recognising warning signs early allows athletes to prevent the occurrence and severity of overuse non-contact knee ligament injuries, improving long-term performance and wellbeing.
Inefficient movement mechanics were consistently identified as a significant contributor to ACL injury in female athletes, including biomechanical factors that influence movement patterns, such as knee alignment and muscular coordination.
WHAT WAS FOUND
Muscular imbalances and reduced knee stability were common contributors to poor sprint mechanics.
Fatigue altered sprint technique, promoting inefficient movement patterns.
The coach observed foot pronation and knee valgus as early warning signs of knee instability and injury probability.
WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT
Efficient movement mechanics are essential for maintaining knee stability to ensure added stress is not placed on ligaments. Addressing these imbalances would directly prevent the probability of acquiring an ACL injury.
Training load and fatigue emerged as the most significant theme across all data, as visibly present in the alluvial diagram displayed above, displaying the greatest contribution to ACL injury risk and the highest number of sub-code connections.
WHAT WAS FOUND
High-intensity sessions, excessive volume, and insufficient recovery increases fatigue levels.
Fatigue impairs neuromuscular connection, promoting the lack of activation of the hamstrings, leading to muscular compensation and inefficient movement mechanics such as altered knee alignment and foot positioning.
This theme is closely linked to body awareness, as athletes often miss early fatigue signs and push through pain.
Overuse injuries were frequently associated with poor progression and limited monitoring of training loads.
Inefficient load management stresses joints and muscles beyond physical capacity, increasing injury risk.
WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT
Through improvements of training load management and real-time fatigue awareness, the athlete is better able to manage their training load, understand their body’s limits and therefore reduce ACL injury risk.
“My first point of focus is their body awareness and how they are using their body in their running… Without this awareness, athletes aren’t able to recognise warning signs, making them more prone to injury.”
– level 5 athletics coach
To understand the real impact of these issues, I mapped out a typical sprint training session from the perspective of the female athlete, with the aim of connecting the research to real time implications. The numbered points indicate a real time experience of the three themes discovered through research, and the graph displays the athletes level of ACL injury susceptibility throughout the training session.
At the beginning of the session, motivation is high. The athlete is feeling focused, driven, and actively chasing performance. However, as fatigue builds, the athletes technique begins to break down. They are unaware of inefficient movement mechanics, such as knee misalignment and foot placement shifts, and the risk of injury rises.
Despite the pain, the athlete pushes through, driven by the pressure to perform and the belief that slowing down pulls her further away form her goals. When an injury finally occurs, years of training and progress is lost and replaced by frustration and self-doubt.
This journey highlights key user needs relating to fatigue management, movement mechanics, and body awareness, directly connecting back to the research conducted. Female athletes require feedback that validates their body’s signals and provides a system capable of recognising fatigue before it leads to injury. This insight became the foundation for my design direction, creating a wearable solution that turns awareness into prevention.
I set out to find solutions to address these issues, exploring muscular activation devices, adaptive shoe wear and analysis technology, and it seemed that the fourth concept had the potential to be the most effective in the prevention of ACL injury in female sprint athletes, a female-specific sprint spike that improves body awareness, mechanical efficiency, and fatigue management through smart haptic feedback systems.
RAYZR REGENER8 addresses these issues through a female specific training spike that integrates real time haptic feedback and motion tracking. It detects fatigue by tracking force output and ground contact time, alerting the athlete through vibration feedback and providing rest recommendations via the app. An embedded IMU monitors movement mechanics such as pronation and knee valgus, warning the athlete of inefficient movement. Designed around female metrics, it features a stabilised structure, supportive sole, and responsive Pebax foam midsole for additional foot stability and support, effectively reducing the probability of ACL injury.
The RAYZR Reger8 sprint spike provides haptic feedback, creating awareness of fatigue and inefficient movement mechanics in the sprint athlete.
Force sensitive resistors are embedded into the sole for measurement of force output and ground contact time analysis, with 20% below users optimal baseline indicating fatigue.
The microcontroller reads this information and generates a vibration output to the vibration motor, with its intensity determined by the level of deviation past the users baseline.
The integrated IMU reads foot rotation inefficiencies, such as pronation, which is directly linked to ACL injury in female athletes as it promotes knee misalignment.
The ESP32 micro controller sends data to application on the users phone through Bluetooth, where suggested rest times and recovery feedback is available.
The entire system is powered by a battery located inside of the middle air bubble, to protect it from high impact and promote the products longevity. This decision was also made to address the end of product life disposal, to ensure it can be separated from the rest of the shoe for sustainable disposal.
Aesthetics play a crucial role for athletes when selecting performance products, particularly in high-performance footwear such as sprint spikes, which are often regarded as the “race cars” of track and field. These shoes must go beyond functionality, visually expressing speed, power, and precision even when stationary.
I experimented with arch gaps and shoe bubble designs, aiming to blend form and function in a way that enhances both performance and visual appeal. The goal was to develop a design that not only feels like an extension of the athlete’s body but also communicates speed and energy in its silhouette.
The result came to a design that embodies both performance and aesthetic appeal. The clear base highlights the internal electronics, creating a visually dynamic and high tech look. The combination of white, bright blue, and pink forms a striking contrast that remains feminine yet athletic. The bubble element protects the battery from impact while adding visual appeal and performance benefits, while the arch gap reinforces the perception of agility and speed. Finally, the logo is integrated onto the base spike plate, serving as both a distinctive visual feature and a functional texture that enhances traction during sprinting.
Fallon Wiedemeijer is a final-year Industrial Design student at QUT with a strong passion for sustainability, sports technology and aesthetics. She combines creativity, curiosity and critical thinking to develop innovative and practical design solutions. Drawing on her experience as an athlete, Fallon approaches challenges with discipline and determination, applying the same mindset to her academic and professional pursuits.