13 Best Smart Clothing For Performance And Health (2021 Update)
Smart clothes - also referred to as high tech clothing, smart garments, smart wear, electronic textiles, smart textiles, e-textiles, monitor clothing, or smart fabrics, are clothes enhanced with technology to add functionality beyond traditional use.
Most smart clothes are made from advanced textiles with interwoven circuitry.
Then, sensors and additional hardware are embedded for further smart functionality.
Smart clothes can connect to apps on smartphones or software on secondary devices such as laptops and PC's via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.
Via the smart sensors, these smart garments collect activity metrics and key biometrics.
The data is sent to AI-powered apps on your smartphone, to help with your health and performance.
However, wireless connectivity isn't necessary to classify a garment as a type of smart clothing.
What Are Some Examples of Smart Clothes?
Many companies have begun integrating technology in fashion making.
As a result, smart clothes are popping up in almost every fashion category.
Examples of the many different types of high tech clothing include:
- Smart shoes: Pizza Hut has experimented with limited-edition smart shoes that can order pizza.
- Smart work clothes: Samsung has made a smart business suit that can exchange digital business cards, unlock phones, and interact with other devices.
- Smart sleepwear: Under Armour's Athlete Recovery Sleepwear absorbs heat from the wearer's body while releasing infrared light to increase sleep quality and improve muscle recovery.
- Smart activewear: Ralph Lauren's PoloTech t-shirts connect to a smartphone app to record fitness activity and recommend new workouts to the wearer.
- Smart casual wear: Tommy Hilfiger embedded tech into garments to track product usage and reward customers for time spent wearing them.
- Smart socks: Sensoria's Smart Socks can detect which part of your feet are receiving the most pressure during your run and send the data to a smartphone app.
Which Companies Make Smart Clothing Technology?
A growing number of technology companies and fashion brands are operating in the smart clothing market.Moreover, the number of brands expected to join them is on the rise, now that the smart clothes concept has become popular.
Among some of the more well-known brands experimenting with smart clothing are Under Armour, Levi's, Tommy Hilfiger, Samsung, Ralph Lauren, and Google.
Smaller companies making a dent in the niche market include Sensora, Loomia, Komodo Technologies, and Hexoskin.
While Samsung and Google are easily the biggest tech companies investing in smart clothes, smaller companies such as OmSignal, BioMan, and Awear Solutions are also making their mark, either by releasing own clothing lines or by collaborating with larger fashion brands.
Is Smart Clothing Expensive?
In general, due to the extra costs required to embed technology in smart clothes, they're pricier than traditional clothing.
For example, a regular jacket may retail for around $100.
However, a similar style smart jacket could set you back anywhere between $200 and $500, depending on the brand.
As with most tech products and fashion items, older smart clothes models will decrease in price as newer ones come out.
Cheaper imitations of popular products will also begin popping up more and more on online marketplaces such as Amazon, Ali Express, and Wish.
Where Can I Buy Smart Clothes?
Most smart clothes are available for purchase from a brand's official website.
For example, the official Levi's storefronts will sell only their brand of smart clothing items.
On the other hand, some big sporting goods shops will sell Under Armour and Levi's smart clothes as well.
Moreover, not just physical retail stores but also online shops like Amazon stock them too.
Are Wearables a Type of Smart Clothing?
The term 'wearables' refers to fitness trackers such as Garmin trackers or Fitbit bracelets.
'Wearable' is also used when talking about high tech accessories such as smartwatches like the Apple Watch.
On the other hand, smart clothes refer only to advanced clothing such as swimsuits, shorts, t-shirts, or hats (like Bluetooth beanies).
But, the term is often used interchangeably with smart clothes by consumers and companies alike.
This isn't necessarily incorrect, as the term does mean technology you can wear.
The Best Smart Clothing
After first popping to the surface in 2015, the 'e-textile and smart clothing' segment is still to reach mainstream adoption.
Yet, we're seeing more companies using innovative technology to create connected garments.
Much more than just strapping gadgets to our wrists, faces, ears, and feet, smart clothing can constantly track our heart rate, monitor our emotions, and even pay for our morning coffee.
All of that without grabbing your smartphone or even tapping on your smartwatch screen.
Without further ado, these are the best smart clothing you can buy right now, in 2021.1. Nadi X Yoga Pants by Wearable X
COMPANY | Wearable X
FEATURE | Built-in haptic vibrations
PRICE | $179
If you're a beginner in Yoga, certain body postures can be quite difficult.
How do you move your body? How long do you hold your position?
Without a good instructor, if you try by yourself, you'll soon find yourself in trouble.
However, Sydney-based startup Wearable X's Nadi X pants solve all of that.
Nadi X yoga pants can sense when your yoga pose needs refining.
Using haptic feedback, the smart pants send small vibrations to the body part you need to adjust.
The built-in haptic vibrations gently pulse at the hips, knees, and ankles to encourage you to move and/or hold positions.
The trousers sync up via Bluetooth to your phone and, through the companion app, give you additional feedback.
The Nadi X app offers instructions on how to optimize each pose, in addition to proper yoga flows which can be used to curate your own personal yoga class.
Nadi X yoga pants are available for men and women in a variety of sizes and are completely machine washable after removing the battery pack which attaches to the rear of your left knee.
It comes in four sizes – XS, S, M, L – and four styles – Midnight, Midnight with black, Black/White with mesh, and Navy/Gray with mesh.
2. Smart Clothing Jacket by Levi's + Google Jacquard
COMPANY | Levi's X Google
FEATURE | Answer calls, play music, take photos
PRICE | From $198
Levi's Commuter Trucker Jacket was the first piece of connected clothing launched from Google's Project Jacquard platform.
By building touch and gesture sensitive areas on the jacket sleeve, wearers are able to interact with a variety of services including music and map apps.
You can dismiss phone calls with a swipe or double-tap to get directions – all without reaching for your phone.
The smart denim jacket will smarten up your commute in more ways than you can imagine.
The Commuter x Jacquard fashion tech jacket connects to your smartphone via Bluetooth.
The jacket can screen phone calls, control music volume, and even notify you when your rideshare is nearby.
Interestingly enough, this jacket has been more recently adopted by the lovers of streetwear fashion.
3. Smart Shirt by Ambiotex
COMPANY | Ambiotex
FEATURE | Measures heart rate, anaerobic info, and stress levels
PRICE | From $198
Ambiotex's smart shirt is built with serious athletes in mind, whether you're a runner, cyclist, or live in the gym.
The compression-style fit means you need to be in pretty decent shape already to pull it off.
The integrated sensors, along with the clip-on box, record key data such as heart rate variability, anaerobic threshold, as well as fitness and stress levels.
Data can be viewed in real-time on the companion smartphone app.
There, you get insights into your biometric data and what it means for optimizing training and recovery.
Furthermore, via the app, you have access to individual training programs.
The heart rate accuracy seemed to measure up in our testing.
However, while it doesn't break the mold for fitness-based smart garments, it does do a good job of pushing out the stats and putting those numbers to good use.