Zena Sport Co-Founder Donna Johnson: “We are empowering a new generation where protective wear will be an essential part of any girl’s kit”

Avatar
Zena Sport
Images provided by Zena Sport

Zena Sport provides the most advanced female breast and rib protection for contact sports, backed by four years’ worth of research and development through the maximum level of sports science tested by Deakin University to greatly reduce the impact across the upper torso with up to 75% of the force being absorbed by the vest.

The vest has also been established to suit the needs of teenagers right through to senior professionals, designed to be worn underneath the playing kit and without visibility.

Speaking with Soccerscene, Zena Sport Co-Founder Donna Johnson shares the importance of protective gear, particularly as more and more women and girls play sport – leading up to the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

What inspired you to create your protective gear for women involved in contact sports?

Donna Johnson: The idea for Zena came about over a coffee with a friend.  Her daughters had just started playing football and we were discussing injuries that had occurred over the weekend.

It concerned me that adolescent girls were playing high impact sport at such a critical stage of their physical development with o form of chest protection.  Given females are anatomically built differently I began doing some research into breast injuries in sport and possible products on the market.

To my surprise there was very little research available and no suitable products on the market. I did my own research project and found that breast injury was in fact occurring and there was a need for a protective garment.

I then spent the next two years designing and developing a vest that was lightweight, comfortable, non-restrictive and protective.  The Final Result – ‘Zena Z!’ An impact protection vest for females playing sport.

How can your vest be of assistance to young girls or women taking up soccer?

Donna Johnson: First and foremost, the vest is designed to reduce the risk of breast and rib injury. It also provides confidence and support for the athlete knowing they have an element of protection.

Impact comes in many forms. It can be diving for a ball and having contact with the ground, it can come from stray elbows, ball hitting the chest, tackling etc. so the vest provides a barrier between the chest and the impact. The vest is comfortable and non-restrictive. It helps empower the athlete to play with confidence.

Many teenagers drop out of sport in their adolescent years, so we want to keep girls active and keep them in sport.

You have a number of partnerships across multiple sports and leagues, are you looking to expand your network in soccer, particularly with the build up towards the Women’s World Cup?

Donna Johnson: We are working really hard across all sports, particularly soccer to develop partnerships and expand our network.

For us, it’s really about education and awareness.  Breast trauma does exist and over 50% of female athletes report suffering from some form of injury to breast.  We are yet to know the long-term impact of breast traumas.

Soccer participation numbers are growing, especially for female participants so we really want to give these girls female specific products to enhance performance.

The Women’s World Cup is only a few weeks away and it’s a really exciting time for women in sport.  Young girls are going to be able to see women on the world stage and dream of doing a similar thing.  It shows that anything is possible!

In a previous article we featured Melissa Barbieri who tested your vest before a launch. With the number of collisions and impact goalkeepers have, how are they supported with your product?

Donna Johnson: Goal keepers put their bodies on the line for their team. For female goalkeepers it’s fair to say their breasts and ribs take full impact with the ground when diving to save the ball.

Our vest provides a level of protection to reduce the risk of injury and help with recovery.

Why should a general grassroots or local player utilise your products?

Donna Johnson: Our Zena Z1 vest was so popular that we developed a Youth Vest for girls between eight & 12 years of age.

We are empowering a new generation where protective wear will be an essential part of any girl’s kit.  This is where the youth vest is perfect at grass roots because girls start wearing it in their junior years and just continue to wear it the whole way through. It is part of the education.

Women of all ages playing local soccer should also consider it as we have a number of new mums returning to sport that are breast feeding and this helps with sensitivity.  Women who have suffered with breast cancer or have had surgery.

They can return to sport with a level of comfort knowing they are protected.  Women also have breast implants that can rupture.  As you can see there are a number of reasons why women at grassroots level should be wearing Zena.

Is there anything new on the horizon we can look forward to, or any projects?

Donna Johnson: Watch this space!  We are just in the process of designing and developing our Rugby Vest and then we have a whole product roadmap of female specific products we hope to develop in the future.

Previous ArticleNext Article

Gold Coast International drives futsal growth as international interest surges

Avatar
Image Credits: Experience Gold Coast

The 2027 Gold Coast International is set to be the biggest year of growth in the tournament’s history. The tournament has become one of Australia’s premier futsal events. Attracting the best teams from not just Australia but around the world. Andrew Parkes is the founder and managing director of the Gold Coast City Futsal Association and an advisory board member at Football Queensland. He says the tournament, and its international reputation, is only strengthening.

“Registrations are actually a step up from what they were last year,” Parkes said.

“We’ve got several teams from New Zealand. At the moment, we’ve got some Pacific Island teams that have expressed interest in coming. We got interest from Japan, and from England as well.

“We’ve got over 140 teams so far, and that’s not including anything from the local areas.”

Over 200 teams attended the 2026 edition, and the Gold Coast International is well set to break that record next year. The figures show the tournament is becoming more than a local competition. It is building a strong national and international presence.

Football Queensland and Football Australia unite behind growth

Parkes believes collaboration has played a major role in the development of futsal in Queensland. The tournament is sanctioned by both Football Queensland and Football Australia. He praised Football Queensland for its work across the sport. He said the organisation has helped create a stronger and more professional futsal system. This relationship between state and national bodies and the event has allowed the Gold Coast to play host to the national competition as well. This ensures shared resources including referees and courts.

“Football Queensland have been a major driving force and a godsend in relation to the development of futsal,” Parkes said.

“We’ve got the nationals the week before the Gold Coast International now. We’re working in harmony and synergy and supporting each other.

“I think the proofs in the pudding, not just with the Gold Coast International, but with the exposure and obviously the diversity of teams that attend. But then the further development in our local leagues, and that’s resulted in.”

E-sports adds another pathway for players and clubs

E-sports has become another major part of the Gold Coast International. Parkes said he had explored the idea for several years and that the tournament allows the community to grow beyond just the physical players on the court. The use of e-sports also allows friends and families to have an interactive experience with simulators and games whilst at the Gold Coast International.

“We launched e-sports about 2 years ago, just with a bit of a light feel. We’ve incorporated the competition into the tournament fees, which is excellent. So it doesn’t cost anybody anymore to be part of it,” Parkes said.

“It actually allows the clubs and academies to extend on their current offerings as it is at the moment and allows gaming players to be part of the club, to be part of the atmosphere and to join and that unity and be part of that sporting community.”

“We had three times the amount of teams that we had from the first year of e-sports. We’re looking to probably even double that again this year, which is really exciting as well.”

New pathways shape the tournament’s future

Parkes wants the Gold Coast International to keep expanding. He is now looking at ways to create pathways beyond the tournament itself. He said the use of its international experiences that can be earned through the tournament is not only about investing in players. But ensuring coaches have a more time-efficient avenue to be involved with futsal. It also gives more coaches the chance to work with players at an international tournament.

“We’ve now created the Gold Coast International All Stars, which is now embraced by many of the coaches and the players,” Parkes said.

“That also provides coaches who don’t have the time or the ability or whatever for the state teams, and the commitment that they need to put in the state teams throughout the year.”

“It allows us to have a lot more outreach to far more coaches that have a lot of passion and enthusiasm, and be part of the Futsal community. They want to build on the players’ abilities but may not have that year-long or eight-month-long exposure that is required by the state Futsal team coaching staff.”

For Parkes, the future is about widening access while continuing to raise standards. The tournament is growing its international reach, strengthening partnerships and creating new opportunities for both physical and e-sports players. The Gold Coast International is no longer just a tournament. It is becoming a broader platform for the development of futsal and its wider community.

For more information on the Gold Coast International and to inquire about competing in the 2027 edition, visit their website.

The Spreadsheet Is Dead: Majestri’s Fix for How Clubs Actually Assess Players

Avatar
If you’ve ever sat through a club’s end-of-season review, you’ll know the drill. A coach pulls out a folder of notes, someone half-remembers what a player was like back in Round 3 and a parent quietly wonders what they actually got for their rego fees beyond a team photo. Football club platform Majestri says it has a fix for that, and it’s built directly into its Player Assessment module.

Why clubs bother assessing players in the first place

According to Majestri, clubs run player assessments for one of three reasons – usually more than one at once. Some are chasing genuine development, using the data to lift the level across their high-performance squads. Others are after a fairer way to pick teams, putting every player on the same measurable scale so selection is based on evidence rather than a coach’s gut feel about who “looks the part.” And for clubs operating under a Football Australia or state federation licence, assessments at set intervals often aren’t optional – they’re a compliance requirement, with the paperwork to prove it when asked.

Whatever the motivation, Majestri’s pitch is the same: don’t let that assessment data die in a spreadsheet on someone’s laptop.

Build your own assessment, your way

There’s no one-size-fits-all template here. The Assessment Designer lets technical directors set their own criteria, sort them into whatever categories their coaching staff already use – think core skills, possession, defending, attacking – and decide what each point on the rating scale actually means. Crucially, every criterion also gets a comment field, because a bare number rarely tells the full story of a player’s development.

The Assessment Module Builder for an NPL Juniors assessment
The Assessment Module Builder, showing an NPL Juniors assessment with a 1-10 rating scale banded from under performing through to excelling and role-specific criteria grouped into core skills, possession, defending and attacking. Source: Majestri.

Build it once and it’s reusable every time that assessment cycle comes around, so every player and every coach – is working off the same yardstick.

Something for the parents to actually take home

One of the more relatable pain points Majestri is targeting: most families never see much tangible return from a season of fees beyond a team photo. Player Assessment addresses that with report cards – colour-coded against the same scale coaches used, grouped by category with averages calculated automatically, and delivered as a PDF or an interactive web page a parent can read without needing a coaching badge themselves.

A player report card for an under-15 player
A report card for an under-15 player, colour-coded from under performing to excelling, with a score for every criterion and a group average across core skills, possession, defending and attacking. Source: Majestri.

 

Turning the numbers into something useful

The real value, though, sits in what Majestri calls the Player Analysis Lab. This is where clubs can plot a player against their team-mates or an entire age group across two categories at once, spotting clusters and outliers at a glance. Every score gets read against the group average – so a “7” actually means something in context – and clubs can report at the broad category level or drill into individual fields underneath. The results can be filtered down and exported for selection meetings or grading purposes.

The Player Analysis Lab comparing players in an under-15 and under-16 squad
The Player Analysis Lab comparing seven players across under-15 and under-16 squads, with a scatter plot, a sortable table of scores against the player average, and controls for choosing which categories and fields to report on. Source: Majestri.

The admin side nobody enjoys, made easier

Beyond the flashy analytics, there’s a practical layer built for the volunteers actually running the process:

  • Sweep monitoring – a quick view of which assessments are done and which are still outstanding, organised into defined assessment periods so progress can be tracked against peers.
  • Individual development plans – every player gets a personalised plan, and clubs can group common improvement areas to run cross-team training sessions that lift the whole club rather than just one squad.
  • Access control – coaches and technical staff can only see assessments for the teams they’re responsible for, and completed assessments are only visible to people linked to that player’s registration.
“Hard numbers to draw on when you review coaching staff and curriculum – and something tangible for the players and parents who pay the fees.” – Majestri

 

The bigger picture

Majestri frames all of this as sitting on top of the club’s own data – assessment results live on each player’s profile inside the platform rather than in a spreadsheet that walks out the door when a technical director moves on. For committees, it also means hard numbers to lean on when reviewing coaching staff or curriculum, rather than relying on anecdote.

It’s a fairly clear read on where club administration software is heading: less about digitising paperwork for its own sake, and more about making the data clubs already collect actually work for player development, team selection and compliance  without adding to the workload of the volunteers who run the show.

For more information on Majestri’s Player Assessment module, visit majestri.com.au/player-assessment.

Most Popular Topics

Editor Picks

Send this to a friend