29 May 2018
Philippe Starck partners with French rugby icon Sébastien Chabal for range of sports equipment
BY Tom Walker
French rugby legend Sébastien Chabal and French designer Philippe Starck have joined forces to create a range of urban sports equipment which promotes free and accessible sport to everyone.
The initiative is part of the Heritage Plan 2024 – one of the legacy projects linked to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Called Station Sport Lib', the equipment aims to "make people embrace movement and encourage them to do sports freely by providing innovative and rewarding sports equipment", accompanied by on-site coaching sessions.
"Station Sport Lib’ features totally minimalist objects, simply governed by their function and their environment," Starck said.
"Whatever the level of practice and the available time, they enable everyone to exercise based on their own ambition, and the intensity they want to put in.
"It is equipment whose goal is to encourage sharing and exchange. Surrealist sculptures placed on a sidewalk, in a park or a garden – they will attract people and make them want to get active. The equipment is both beautiful and useful.”
The first Station Sport Lib' installation took place in the city of Clichy this month and will be rolled out across the country later this year.
The equipment will be distributed by Chabal's new venture, Concept Sport, which the former French international launched following his retirement from professional rugby.
"I dreamed and imagined of what the ideal urban sports structure could be," Chabal said. "And Philippe Starck has now designed it – a dream has become reality."
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