Sport and recreation: safe and sustainable

TenCate is focusing on the growing need for protection of people and their working and living environments: when we are on the move (In transit), at home (In habitats), at work (At work) and when we are playing sports or enjoying time out for recreation (During leisure).

When it comes to leisure or free-time activities, it’s mainly a question of sport and recreation. TenCate serves this end market via four market groups: TenCate Outdoor Fabrics and TenCate Grass, and to a more modest extent TenCate Advanced Composites and TenCate Geosynthetics.

There’s a good chance that anyone who spends his or her free time camping, walking or playing sport will come across TenCate materials. For the end market sport and recreation the material technology concern develops and produces synthetic turf (sport and landscaping) and outdoor fabrics (camping tents and awnings), composite materials for sports articles, and geosynthetics for recreational purposes. TenCate incorporates special characteristics (functionalities) into these materials based on the worldwide trends ‘safety’ and ‘sustainability’.

Leisure activities and sports require safe and sustainable facilities. High-grade outdoor fabrics offer protection against sun, UV radiation, rain, fire, wind, snow and unwelcome visibility. Synthetic turf saves on water consumption and maintenance, prevents injuries and creates an even playing field.

The market for synthetic turf continues to grow worldwide, not only for sport but also for landscaping. The demand for high-grade fibres, backing, infill and sports systems is picking up, and more attention is being given to quality and the ‘look & feel’ of landscaping projects. New (woven or tufted) synthetic turf systems for top-flight sport have set a new standard.

Dutch professional football is expressing more interest in synthetic turf. This interest is being translated into a growing number of orders for synthetic turf systems and the XtraGrass™ system of GreenFields for both professional and amateur football. XtraGrass™ is a hybrid system, consisting of synthetic grass fibres and biodegradable fibres. XtraGrass™ is a patented, 100% recyclable synthetic turf system that can be tailored to fit any football ground.