Wearable Technologies - trailblazing platform for market-ready products

The Wearable Technologies Show by the leader in global sporting goods trade shows, ispo, once again presented a unique platform for the marketing of new technologies in the sports and lifestyle sector. On 250 square meters approximately 20 exhibitors presented their technological product innovations. The list of participating exhibitors included innovative newcomers such as Texsys, Sunload, or Polygiene, renowned apparel companies such as Falke, Quiksilver, or Swany, industry giants such as 3M, Bluetooth, and Sefar, as well as leading semi-conductor manufacturer Analog Devices.

We were very pleased with the fact that this special show not only functioned as a networking event, but that a number of participants brought market-ready innovations and strong partners from the apparel industry to this year´s show, while last year most of them presented only prototypes. Entrak, for example, integrated its Personal Cooling System into a motorcycle jacket now sold by Lodenfrey. Sefar cooperated with Falke to produce a heated kidney warmer. Further, the communication glove by Texsys has gone into production under the Swany brand. This means that Wearable Technologies not only has become an established, succesful exhibiton space, but evolved into a genuine market place bringing together electronic/technology/systems with sports and apparel.

The trends for this winter included temperature regulating apparel (heating and cooling), motion sensors to analyze body functions, odor-absorbing apparel, navigation and tracking, as well as the use of recycled fibres. Product highlights included the new video jacket by Texsys with a button camera integrated TV set.

The first participation of the Bluetooth SIG - Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), a not-for-profit association whose members endorsed the development of Bluetooth wireless technology in their products, is certainly significant. At the Wearable Technologies Show the association was able to promote "ultra low power Bluetooth", a standard for rapid and energy-saving transmissions for sports market applications. The new standard will spawn a number of new applications for watches and sensors, as well for cell phones. In addition, the Bluetooth SIG held a panel discussion together with representatives of Polar, Nokia, Nordic Semiconductors, Bluetooth, and Texsys.

Further daily highlights were the informative presentations "Wearable Technologies & Motion Sensors - new trends in the application of motion sensors in sports", "Navigation in the WT Market - an indispensable trend for retail" and "Green WT - ecologically-correct WT products".