“In terms of the innovation adoption curve, the market has progressed from innovators and early adopters to more mainstream early and late majority, which means that well over 50 per cent of the population has adopted the wearables market. Earlier this year, a Gartner press release predicted that worldwide wearable device sales would grow 18 per cent in 2016,” Davide Vigano, CEO and co-founder of Sensoria, told Fibre2Fashion.
Consumers were initially sceptical about sensor-embedded smart apparel developed by Sensoria, but the response to the technologically-enhanced garments has been positive lately.
“Once consumers realised that sensors embedded into the plantar area of the sock could accurately produce metrics attributed to running form, they were more likely to try and adopt the product,” added Vigano.
Talking about the challenges the company faced while developing their smart clothing items, Vigano said, “Initially, in the creation of our smart socks, we were unable to find the exact sensors that we needed in the marketplace. Therefore, we created our own proprietary textile sensors, which took longer than had anticipated and cost us a lot of resources. However, the effort was well worth it to deliver the best product possible to the marketplace in terms of accuracy, wearability and functionality.”
Sensoria is also in the process of looking for strategic partners to create more customized solutions and integrate its proprietary sensor in a range of clothing items.
“With the introduction of Sensoria Core, our revolutionary new technology platform, this embeddable technology will accelerate the integration of a broad spectrum of sensors with footwear and apparel products. We are looking for strategic partners with whom we can create customised solutions that deliver the metrics that are most important to their customers,” continued Vigano.
When asked to do some trend forecasting about the revolutionary changes in smart clothing in the decade, Vigano told us about the company's vision of a fully instrumented athlete featuring multiple sensors in each article of clothing, footwear and eyewear for measuring different metrics.
The company developing smart garments will continue to innovate and look for new opportunities in various verticals.
“We will continue to evaluate new market opportunities, their growth potential and competitive landscape to determine the best course of action. We are and will continue to remain a leading developer of smart garments and Internet of Everything (IoE) wearable solutions that improve people's lives,” he said. (KD)
Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India