The best of 2011: The top three Sport & Leisure Seeds of the year

Germany, Tokyo, US – My favourite Seeds from the leisure sector cover a performance-monitoring football boot, a sound-sampling iPhone app and an interactive music video.

The new Adizero f50 football boot has an in-built memory chip that monitors the user’s performance during a game. It contains technology in the sole that captures 360-degree movement and enables the wearer to track and upload performance data, including maximum speed and distance covered. Expect more boots to contain similar technology in 2012.

Fresh Push Play is a sound sampler, sequencer and iPhone app that simulates the equipment that Japanese beatbox duo Hifana uses in its live performances. Designed by creative agency Wieden + Kennedy, the music app is a socially interactive game equipped with 16 pads that lets users recreate Hifana’s live performances by tapping the buttons with their fingers to make beats. I liked the way the app looked forward to a time when music might be made on an iPhone.

For its song Sprawl II, the band Arcade Fire has released an interactive video that enables viewers to control the dancers and band members through a webcam by gesticulating. The camera picks up the viewer’s movements and moves a roll of film to make the dancer move quickly or slowly. I like physical interaction with a digital medium.