Company plans future sports applications for tennis and golf for its Motion Marketplace

Swish by Onyx Motion “takes advantage of motion sensors to provide accurate tips and feedback to improve play,” wrote Robert Liwanag in “App for smartwatches helps users become better basketball players” for the Financial Post‘s “Entrepreneur” section on September 28, 2015.

“Using it is simple — you turn it on, press calibrate and lift your arms and hands as you would to shoot a basket,” wrote Liwanag. “The objective is to bring the circle hovering inside the target on the watch’s screen to go green. When it does, the user is in the right starting position and has the ability to achieve consistency shot after shot.”

Onyx Motion is a graduate of the UTEST program‘s third cohort (and is currently based in Ryerson’s Digital Media Zone). Their basketball app, which is scheduled to launch in November after a successful Indiegogo campaign, is the first of several sports-focused products planned by CEO Marissa Wu.

More from Liwanag’s article:

Until the launch, the company is constantly fine-tuning the app, planning to add features for dribbling tips and full coaching routines. Swish also plans to expand its Motion Marketplace — an interactive centre where you can purchase professional players’ data and coaching tips.

“Imagine dribbling on the court, and Kobe Bryant’s voice comes and says, ‘Hey, you’re doing a great job,’” Wu said. “You’ll immediately think, ‘Holy, Kobe Bryant just complimented me,’ and we really want to implement that.”

Its breakthrough came through a collaboration with National Basketball Association player Ben Gordon, whom Wu met on a business trip in Orlando, Fla., to learn from professional basketball coaches. Gordon eventually flew to Toronto on his own dime to film a campaign with Onyx Motion and later sponsored the company’s recent crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, which managed to surpass its goal of $10,000.

The complete article is available on the Financial Post‘s website.