Smart Textiles in Sports Wear-Whitepaper Supplement

1: Introduction

The aim of this whitepaper is to outline perspectives fordeployment of smart textiles and wearable technologies in sports clothing andequipment and to indicate areas where integration of smart features may be usedto support a brand image.

Focus is on wearable technologies and smart textileapplications in the broadest sense, i.e. both technologies that can be embeddedinto clothing and accessories which can be worn on the body. Ohmatex works withthe following definitions:

Smart Textiles: Textiles with the capability to react to different kinds ofphysical stimuli, for example temperature, pressure etc.

Wearable Technology: Any electronic device that is small enough to be worn or carriedon the body.

Interactive Textiles: Wearable technologies which are sewn into clothingand operated or controlled by an integrated control panel or operation button.

The technologies and applications presented here areselected on the basis of Ohmatex' experience and reflect the maturity oftechnologies currently available and the trends experienced in the sportswearmarket. If the options presented appear less than visionary, that is probablybecause the current technological state-of-the-art is in reality far lessadvanced than it is often presented to be by the media. Many developmentsrequire considerable work to reach a maturity which can ensure a robust productthat is both as functionally reliable and washable etc. as consumers expect.

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