There is a new smart shirt on the market and it comes from one of the most established luxury brands around, Ralph Lauren.
The new biometric shirt debuted at the U.S. Open Tennis Championships and has the ability to gauge a number of physical aspects by linking to a smartphone or other capable device. The move should help to push the nascent smart shirt sector forward.
Top-ranked college player Marcus Giron donned the new shirt for his matches and ball boys were also given access to the shirts, which the company hopes will bridge the gap between luxury and smart technology in the clothing sector.
"It will help me understand my body a lot more, how I'm improving day to day in terms of endurance and strength, what I need to do to recover faster and improve," Giron said.
David Lauren, executive vice president of the company, believes that high-tech can be high fashion.
"To demonstrate this new wearable technology on the courts is an amazing platform for people to see it tested at the highest level of performance," Lauren said.
The shirt comes with no plugs and no wires, making it wearable in a myriad of situations, including top-level athletic endeavors. It employs bio-sensing silver fibers that are then put into the nylon compression material. Data goes from the shirt to an attached black box (that you remove and recharge before you throw the shirt in the wash) to an app on your smartphone or tablet. It is able to track heart rate, breathing levels, stress, the number of steps a person has taken and the amount of calories burned.
It has received initial positive reviews from New York during the annual tennis tournament. While it made its debut at the Open, the shirts won't be on general sale until the spring, and no word yet on cost.
Tournament director David Brewer believes the smart shirt is a promising feature for the game. "We've been fascinated by statistics and background data that we've been compiling," Brewer said. "This gives us a good opportunity with ball persons to see how they deal with the stress, heat, respiration, all the things typically that players would deal with."
With wearable tech increasing, a number of companies are looking to make inroads into the athletic sphere and health sector with their own wearable devices. Until now, however, top-class athletes have been apprehensive of adding additional weight to their bodies during matches.
Most analysts and observers believe health care technology is a top need going forward and attention by the biggest technology companies should create more competition and better innovation in the coming months and years, Tech Times reports. The battle is heating up and Ralph Lauren hopes its smart shirt will be a winner on and off the court.
