Wearable technology has been on the horizon in the tech world for the past several years, but has often been viewed as a gimmick or expensive novelty item. Yet this futuristic trend has seen recent break outs in the areas of health and fitness, namely with wrist type wearables such as Fitbit and the Apple Watch.
Many of these devices are packed with everything you might find in a larger tablet, but miniaturized. Touchscreen technology combined with large amounts of memory are now being offered in a lightweight, wrist held package. These devices often offer WiFi, GPS, camera, microphone, and the GBs of storage we have grown accustomed to in our modern lives.
Yet the wearable market is poised to open into newer and broader fronts with the advent of "smart" clothing. Most smart clothing looks and feels similar to normal clothing but with sensors embedded into the fabric in such a minute fashion that the wearer is often unable to tell they are there.
Behind this smart clothing idea is the premise that they can be embedded with sensors that are then connected wirelessly to smartphones. They will then relay a variety of information to the user about their fitness and health regimens.
Recently, running socks have been launched that can track your runs better than a fitness tracker on your wrist. These socks have three pressure sensors embedded into them that track your pace, distance and time during a workout. This data can then be analyzed to give you tips on how to improve your exercise, improve exercise efficiency and help you to avoid injury.
Whole body clothing is being developed that goes even further. These full body outfits track what muscles are being worked the hardest during your workouts. This technology is useful for people who want to efficiently work on a certain part or muscle area in their body and don't have the time to spend on traditional full body workouts.
This is a growing area that has not yet been exploited by marketing, and offers a unique position for a new businesses trying to break into the technological market. As the world becomes more connected, the devices we use daily have become so as well. This has wearable technology is traveling into new and unknown territory for marketers to adventure.