Released on the iOS platform, is the new app Shrick. They claim it’s something you’ve never seen before. Their tagline boasts that they are starting the ‘Action Sports World Cup for All’. Shrick is a niche app targeted only at adventure sport enthusiasts – skateboarders, BMX bike riders, Motocross racers, surfers, snowboarders and the likes. Their spearheading feature is that you can share ‘tricks’ via the app. ‘Tricks’ in the world of adventure sports are any set of ordered moves, performed successfully. For instance, if you were to let go of your handlebar mid-air, grab the rear of your motorcycle’s seat and stretch your body completely, as if you were flying, you would be performing a ‘trick’ called the Superman. The app probably gets its name from the blending and clipping of the two words – SHare & tRICK – SHRICK!
What’s more? You can create your own tricks, follow your favourite professional adventure sports persona, find local crews that are into the same adventure sport as you and are also on shrik and show off exclusive gear and merchandise, all for free and at an incredibly tiny size of 10MB. Sounds exciting right? But there has to be a catch right? Well, it’s a tiny one. The interface seems exactly like instagram only in the colour red. So it’s like Instagram for the adventurous. Most of the posts you see on it are riddled with hashtags. Shrick gives you an option of posting both photo and video. The only thing making it stand apart from instagram is its points system.
Based on the number of people that share, like or talk about you and your tricks, you accumulate points. The points then file you in a ranking system and you can check out how you are faring among the top shredders on shrick. To me personally, this seems like a gimmick for promotion as a substitute to the usual referral system and cash back offers used by apps like Uber, AirBNB and Ola.
One huge plus point that Shrik has under its belt is that you can connect with and follow professionals or ‘pros’. As an amateur adventure sport enthusiast, this would give you access like never before to your favourite shredders be it Mike Metzger, Shaun White or your favourite X Games performer. This means exposure like never before for both pros and amateurs alike. Another feature that is worth its salt is the option to find local crews. Local enthusiasts can follow each other via the app and form ‘crews’ – groups of same sport enthusiasts that practice and perform tricks together. Crews can then compete against each other and compare which one has more members in higher ranking positions on the top scale – pretty much a real life points accumulating Role Playing Game, only your real self becomes the protagonist of the game.
[portfolio_slideshow]
Overall, I give the app 3 out of 5. Nothing less because it is novel in that it caters to adrenalin junkies, a section of society that receives relatively less attention. Nothing more because that’s where the novelty stops, making the rest of the app almost a funky re-launch of the pre existing Instagram. So Shriek for SHRICK and shred on, share and upload your favourite tricks and go be the number one shredder in your town, or possibly the World!
DOWNLOAD
