High-Tech Clothing

High-Tech Clothing

First, there was the pedometer. Then, there was the Fitbit. And now, tracking your health is looking to be as easy as getting dressed, thanks to the latest revolution in wearables — fabric itself. With many consumer companies leading the way in this field, the shirt on your back is getting closer and closer to becoming your personal doctor, monitoring your vitals and tracking your health through sensors woven directly into them.


Most of the wearable technology is still in early testing and prototype phase for general pubic use but it is based on the use of conductive fabric- most commonly made with silver – which is woven into fabrics to act as sensors that detect electrical signals like measuring heart rate and muscle activity. The silver can either be woven in throughout a piece of clothing or through patches sewn into specific regions. Close-fitting clothes like t-shirts or sports bras seem to work the best since the closer the sensor to the skin, the better the signal will get detected. From there, signals are then transmitted to detectors – in the form of apps on a smartphone or a tablet – which are now easily carried by the person wearing the clothing.  Also too, the information collected can be uploaded to the Internet or sent to a third party, such as a doctor.


Most of this technology was originally intended to just monitor athletes as part of their training, but it now seems like the technology has advanced enough that we are now seeing it police and firefighter clothing along with t-shirts, bras, shorts and socks primary because of it’s close-fitting nature. Victoria’s Secrets, Adidas and NASA are just some of the companies investing into this wearable technology.


There seems to be endless medical applications for this type of technology with claims that it could certainly revolutionize medical practices. Sensors implanted into patience’s clothing could help doctors conduct long-term tests of pulse, blood pressure, and temperature giving them crucial long-term biodata allowing them make a far better diagnosis of their patience by seeing trends in the data collected. SmartLife (www.aiqsmartclothing.com) and Clothing+ (www.clothingplus.fi) are two companies on the cutting edge of this type of technology. Both have already developed health vests to be worn under normal clothing that are used to monitor cardiac patients during their normal routines where they claim they can detect a weakening heart up to 10 days prior to a collapse.

The versatility of these smart fabrics has enabled their use to extend beyond everyday apparel to smart socks and adhesive materials such as smart bandages. A Danish company called Ohmatex (www.ohmatex.dk) has developed smart socks that will monitor fluid retention in the your feet and legs which they claim can warn the wearer of heart failure or pre-eclampsia. SmartLife, is also creating compression bandages that use two-way signals in and out of the fabric to track how far a bandage is being stretched, as well as the pressure it’s putting on the wearer. This would help medical professionals to apply bandages securely and with more accuracy, in addition to them monitoring any movement in the wearer once fitted.  As it seems, larger wounds only heal if they have the correct pressure applied by the bandage.

Finally innovations into the use of temperature sensors are currently being tested in firefighter clothing collecting and monitoring the temperature inside and outside of a fire suit detecting heat levels and alarming the wearer to heat stress.


For anyone looking to purchase smart clothing currently in the stores, it looks like ADIDAS does have a ‘Climachill‘ collection that uses titanium and aluminium in their fabric in order to give the wearer a cold sensation while working which helps for longer training sessions and better performance.

Also, Victoria Secrets has a smart bra in their lineup titled ‘The Incredible‘ made of nylon and spandex  and it comes with two built-in electrodes that will attach to most clip-on heart rate monitors.

And Ralph Lauren has a Polo tech shirt almost ready for the consumer s. The nylon shirt is infused with conductive biosensing silver-coated fibres which act as sensors that then stream this data in real time to a smartphone. The shirt tracks distance, calories burned, heart rate, stress rate and intensity of movement.  The shirt is not out yet but their website is saying availability will be soon.


There is no doubt that high-tech smart clothing is just starting to makes its way to consumers and it’s future does look promising based on all of the prototypes,  trials, and testing. I’d expect to see all of this technology common in clothing over the course of the next 5-10 years.


Introducing: The Polo Tech Shirt

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