Fitness

Swarovski, best known for their blingy crystals, has a history of innovative collaborations with product and fashion designers. Nearly 8 years ago, a collaboration with Swarovski and Hussein Chalayan resulted in the first wearable tech garments, decorated with crystals and lasers, to be shone on the runway. 

No stranger to fashion tech, Swarovski’s latest fashion tech collaboration is with Misfit. The offerings radically reconsider the materials that tech products can be constructed from. To note, the Misfit Shine set itself apart from other activity trackers by creating an elegant activity tracker, minimal in design, entirely constructed from metal not plastic. Now the Shine is available with a crystal surface that allows the LED lights (indicating a user’s progress) to glimmer through the faceted glass interface.

A purple solar-powered version is also available for pre-order which Misfit claims will never need external charging. 

Let’s pause here for a second to focus on the significance of this particular feature. 

If the solar-powered Shine works as promised, one of the greatest usability hurdles that affects a user’s persistent use will be entirely eliminated, moving us one step closer from perceiving these products from being gadgets to authentic lifestyle products. And for that alone Misfit deserves to be lauded. 

Whether bling is your thing or not, the Swarovski Shine is simply another voice to add to Misfit’s accessory collection. 

Personally, I prefer studs to shine, leather to lace, but I can appreciate a brave fashion risk when I see one. 

The collection, including several new accessories for the all-metal Shine, is available for pre-order here. 

Fibers is a lovely data visualization software that transforms Nike Fuelband data into artworks. The project was developed by data visualization artist Marcin Ignac in collaboration with Nike to celebrate the “We Own The Night — Nike Women’s 10k run.” 

A fiber represents a days worth of activity with color and thickness indicating activity levels and intensity. The length of the fibers indicates total sum of activity in comparison to previous days. 

7 days worth of data is translated into dynamic, abstracts prints. 

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the software was available to us all so we can make prints of our own daily movement? 

via Creative Applications 

To celebrate its 30th anniversary, Adidas is reissuing the Micropacer OG running shoe with a built-in pedometer.

The shoe will come in its original retro-futuristic silver colorway and, like the original, it will be laceless.

The originally made its debut in 1984!

The sneaker will retail for $255 on August 18.

via NY Daily News

LEO — an elastic fitness band that you wear on your thigh — integrates sophisticated biosignal monitoring to help improve your athletic performance. Unlike activity trackers, the LEO leg band isn’t intended to be worn all day. 

Its intended audience appears to be fitness enthusiasts (think triathletes) and professional athletes who would like more detailed analysis of their muscle activity (intensity, fatigue and coordination) coupled with their heart rate and hydration levels to provide insight into their physiology and performance.

To appeal to a broader audience, LEO is being marketed for its training capability and injury prevention. 

More importably, LEO promises to provide actionable recommendations — not just your stats — to help you achieve your performance goals. 

The Legband doesn’t come cheap though. It will run you $184 USD. 

You can find more technical details on their Indigogo campaign.

The greatly anticipated Tory Burch collaboration with Fitbit is available for preorder today. The small collection features two patterned silicone bracelets, a brass necklace and brass bracelet. 

Out of all four, the brass bracelet is my personal favorite. The collection is designed with Burch’s classic graphic sensibility. Priced at $195 for the bracelet and $175 for the pendant, fashioning your Fitbit also comes at a designer price. 

Unlike most costume jewelry, the Fitbit accessories are meant to be worn daily. I’d be a bit concerned about how quickly it would oxidize with everyday use. 

So what you guys think: Hot or Not?

With the impending threat of smart watches making activity trackers obsolete, Withings has made a brave, bold move to enhance a classic timepiece with activity monitoring capabilities. The end result is a timeless watch with a second dial that displays your progress towards your goal. 

Activite is first and foremost a timepiece and it is a bold move for a technology company to enter into the traditional world of watchmaking. Created by a team of Parisian designers and Swiss watchmakers, Activité can bravely command its $390 price point without having brand recognition let alone any history. 

Activité pushes activity monitors beautifully into the realm of lifestyle products versus fitness gadgets. Its designcentric marketing video opens with an architectural tour of built urban environments with two understated chic individuals gliding about the city on foot and bike. With no spandex in sight or any adrenaline driven visuals, Activité is being marketing to the Net-a-porter crowd of chic, intelligent adventurous women and men of the world.

Similar to other activity trackers, Activité tracks your movement, monitors your sleep, and has a smart alarm feature that wakes you up with a gentle vibration. It is water-resistant up to 5 ATM so you can swim with it if you wish. And because it connects to your smart phone, it automatically displays the exact time. Most importantly, you don’t need to charge it. It will run on a battery for up to a full year. 

The watch also comes with two interchangeable straps — leather for everyday wear and plastic for sport — to seamlessly blend into your lifestyle. 

Navigation is a popular theme for wearable devices. Google Glass is great at taking you to the closest Starbucks, Navigate, a fashionable GPS-enabled coat, will help you find your way to the nearest nightspot, and this DIY Smart Cycling  takes you to the nearest Citibike Sharing station. 

SuperShoes, by Dhairya Dand, too have typical mapping and wayfinding functionality but with a clever twist. The flexible smart insoles connect to your mobile device to help navigate you to your destination but they also have the ability to learn more about the user — your to-do list, restaurant preferences, favorite hiking spots, etc. Coupling personal data with location-based technologies, of course, is nothing new but using your personal likes and habits as a means to help derail you from your everyday patterns is simply quite fun. 

The novel feature of the SuperShoes is that it can instill “acts of random serendipity” — suggest a different route to work in the morning or suggest a scenic walk for mediation, adding a level of discovery and exploration to one of the best forms of exercise — walking. 

Most of the wearable technology on the market today falls into the accessories category, predominately taking form as electronics wrapped in silicone intended to be worn on your wrist. 

When I began researching wearables 8 years ago, what initially drew me into the field was the potential to create “electronic skins.” Conductive threads and woven electronic textiles was my gateway to the wearable technology frontier. 

But combining electronics and textiles is not an easy task. Companies seem to have abandoned a future in e-textiles entirely and instead invested all their energy in creating flexible PCBs. 

That is why projects like Sporty Supaheroe — designed by Wolfgang Langeder and engineered by Fraunhofer IZM and Stretchable Circuits — are significant. 

You may balk at paying $1850 for an illuminated cycling jacket, but — if you have the spare cash— what you are investing in is research and a vision. Ya, ya — that all sounds idealistic but recognize that everyone who has purchased a Google Glass is too investing in an idea. 

The beauty of the Sporty Supaheroe is the soft, flexible, washable circuitry that can comfortably conform to the body. 

For those without 2K to spare, there is a $200 light belt and $400 bag also available. 

Sporty Supaheroe is seeking $69K and has 35 days to go. 

Learn more about their Indiegogo Campaign here.