North East entrepreneur, Claire Budge, is taking her innovative sports training concept to the next level as her company becomes an official partner of Durham Women FC.
The Darlington mum-of-four came up with a business idea after struggling to help her goalkeeper daughter practise at home. She went on to set up Orbitor Performance Ltd and is the driving force behind The Orbitor, a multi-sport ball launcher being developed to enable young footballers, goalkeepers, basketball and netball players to practise independently at home.
The business has now taken another significant step forward after agreeing a partnership with Durham Women FC, which will see The Orbitor featured on the front of the club’s first-team warm-up shirts throughout the 2026/27 season, as well as through signage at the club’s Maiden Castle home.
For Claire, the partnership has a particularly personal significance. The idea for The Orbitor began when her daughter, Amelie, a goalkeeper who has progressed through Durham Women’s academy pathway, was preparing for an important trial.
Wanting to help her daughter practise, Claire quickly discovered she couldn’t kick the ball with the consistency needed to recreate the same saves, crosses and training scenarios repeatedly. What started as a family training session highlighted a much wider problem: young athletes who want to practise away from organised sessions are often reliant on having another person available – and that person needs the ability to deliver the ball consistently.
Claire began looking for an alternative and identified a gap between expensive professional training equipment and lower-cost products offering much more limited functionality. This experience became the starting point for The Orbitor.
Designed in the North East, the product is being developed to deliver repeatable ball feeds across multiple sports, giving young athletes the opportunity to work on individual skills, reactions and technique at their own pace.
Claire, whose career before launching the business was in education and child development, believes access to consistent practice can have an important impact not only on sporting ability but on young people’s confidence. She said: “Seeing The Orbitor on Durham Women’s warm-up shirts is a really special moment because there is such a personal connection between the club, my family and the reason the business exists in the first place.
“The idea started in our own garden when I was trying – fairly unsuccessfully – to help my daughter practise. It made me realise that there must be thousands of young athletes who want to put extra work in but don’t always have somebody who can recreate the practice they need. That’s the problem we want The Orbitor to solve. We want young people to be able to pick up a ball, go outside and practise with purpose, whether somebody else is available to train with them or not.
“To go from that first idea to building a North East sports-tech business and now partnering with Durham Women is something I’m incredibly proud of. I also think it sends a powerful message about what can be created here in the region.”
Orbitor Performance Ltd has been developing the product with support from the North East business and innovation community. Claire was among the entrepreneurs selected for the Tees Valley Labs’ Stable Programme, a six-month incubator supporting start-ups and scale-ups as they progress from early-stage ideas towards market traction and investment. The programme gave Claire access to specialist mentoring and commercial support as she worked to develop The Orbitor from an identified problem into a product and scalable business.
The company’s growing profile has now been strengthened by its partnership with Durham Women, who compete in Barclays Women’s Super League 2. The Orbitor branding will be seen on the club’s first-team warm-up shirts throughout the season, taking the name of the emerging North East brand out to players and supporters around the country.
Claire added: “Women’s and girls’ sport is growing enormously and Durham Women have played an important role in giving young players in this region something to aspire to. As a business focused on helping young athletes develop their skills and confidence, there is a real alignment between what Durham Women stand for and what we want The Orbitor to achieve. This partnership is about supporting the club, but it’s also about showing young people what’s possible – both in sport and in business.”
The Orbitor is currently under development ahead of its planned launch.
