Plenty of sports are sticklers for tradition, but that doesn’t mean there’s not still space for cool technology and innovation, even when it comes to sports like basketball or running. Quite the opposite, in fact, which is why we’ve rounded up some of the coolest gadgets that are revolutionising sports in 2017.
Vi
Lots of fitness trackers can be used as a replacement for personal trainers, letting you access the information you need to push yourself harder and harder, but the Vi headset is actually a personal trainer, albeit one based on artificial intelligence. The headset packs in speech recognition so you don’t need to worry about fiddly buttons or screens while you’re on the move, and just like a real trainer, it can set you goals, offer insights into what you’re doing right and wrong and share your fitness app data with you. Vi isn’t just about intelligence, either, with Harman Kardon providing the sound, a great looking design and a claimed all-day battery life. What’s not to like?
Want your own AI personal trainer? You can pre-order Vi for $249 on the Vi website.
ShotTracker Team
Aimed at competitive basketballers, including both amateur and professional ranks, ShotTracker has the potential to properly change the game. As the name cunningly hints, it’s all about tracking your shots, and the Team version is a coach’s dream, with sensors for the court, a team ball and each individual player, letting them use the accompanying app to monitor literally everything that’s happening on court in real-time. Miss a shot, and ShotTracker will know about it. There’s also an individual version of ShotTracker, with a wrist sensor that captures information on each and every shot attempt you make, and a net sensor to register whether those shots are successful or not.
Buy the individual ShotTracker package for $149 on ShotTracker’s website.
Running is one of the sports we’ve seen plenty of technological advances in, with wearables including GPS-based watches and fitness trackers proving increasingly popular, but RunScribe is claimed to be the most advanced running wearable so far. Rather than attaching to your own body, the tiny RunScribe tech attaches to each of your running shoes, offering a couple of benefits over traditional wearables. For starters, it enables RunScribe to monitor the symmetry of your running, feeding back on your running stroke, left versus right metrics, impact shock and more. It can also offer details on step rate, contact time, flight ratio and motion profile details, with a huge array of metrics on offer to help get the most out of your training. It won’t track your heart rate, but it can offer actual insight into *how* you’re running, which could be even more valuable to you.
Interested? You can buy the RunScribe Pro for $199 here.
Glassy Zone
Glassy Zone is a wearable aimed at surfers and designed by surfers. It looks like a regular fitness band, with neat styling and a group of icons that shine through the black finish, but there’s a whole load of clever tech packed away inside, including GPS, an accelerometer and a gyroscope, which enables Glassy Zone to monitor exactly what you’re up to on a surfboard. The result? The designers claim it can help you keep tabs on the number of waves you catch, the time you’re riding waves or paddling for and the distance of every wave you ride. Alongside the app, it can let you know what the surfing conditions are like, and it even monitors the amount of UV radiation you’re being subjected to, letting you know when it’s time to pack up and head away from the sun. Currently on Indiegogo, Glassy Zone is expected to hit the waves later this year.
While the cheapest Indiegogo offers have sold out, you can still pledge $129 to get your hands on Glassy Zone here.
Athos
Athos is the wearable that could change your fitness regime forever: it’s a piece of smart clothing capable of monitoring a comprehensive range of biometric data, giving you detailed insight into your performance. It uses seamlessly integrated biosignal sensors within the clothing that can link up to your smartphone to provide a valuable look into how much effort your muscles are making, what your heart is up to and more. The designers also claim that it’s capable of helping you to perform the right exercises, with the right form at the right intensity, and you can see if you’re firing the right muscles each time you hit the squat rack or engage a deadlift. Your own always-on personal trainer, then.
Athos is currently available as a top, shorts, leggings or full body kit. Don’t expect it to come cheap though – the shirt alone costs $398. Find out more on the Athos website.
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