Smithsonian Sports Invention Exhibition Will Have People Rethinking Their Game

Colorado Time Systems, a PlayCore company is pleased to be an object donor to this family friendly, interactive exhibition focused on the intersection of invention, sports, and technology.

Invention and technology can make the difference between victory and defeat as well as expand who can participate in sports.

“Change Your Game”/“Cambia tu juego,” presented by the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation opened on March 15. The 3,500-square-foot, family friendly, interactive exhibition in the Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Hall of Invention at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History will explore the dynamic role of invention and technology in sports from an unexpected perspective: who invents for sports and why?

The bilingual exhibition spotlights how the motivations of diverse inventors, athletes and technologists have changed how historical and contemporary sports are played. It will invite visitors to see themselves as inventive problem solvers who can become “game changers” in their daily lives.

Sports have universal appeal contributing to physical health, social connections, cultural identity, personal development and even national unity. Every sport and every player is mediated by numerous inventions, and this exhibition takes a look at who invented the technology that makes game play possible.

“Every individual has the capacity to be inventive and to develop creative solutions—in sports and in other areas of everyday life,” said Anthea M. Hartig, the museum’s Elizabeth MacMillan Director. “As visitors to ‘Change Your Game’ learn from a diverse array of sports inventors and come to understand their motivations, we hope they will begin to see their own potential to be a game changer.”

More than 60 sports technology objects from the nation’s collection will be on view in the new exhibition.