Hexoskin
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Hexoskin's fitness clothes now work with third-party apps
In late 2014, I tested out Hexoskin's first smart shirt, a vest that promised to monitor your vital statistics while you exercised. After a year in the lab, the company has rolled up to CES with a second-generation version of the wearable that comes with a couple notable changes. The first is that the battery life has been extended, with the firm promise that it'll last up to 30 hours on a single charge. After that, the most notable tweak has been to include Bluetooth Smart in the hardware, enabling it to connect to any compatible GPS, smartwatch or bike computer. In addition, the data that you create while out and about can now be exported to third-party fitness apps like Strava, Runkeeper and Endomondo.
Hexoskin's smart shirt feels nice, but can't tell a step from a curl
History is littered with stories of companies that share a deep rivalry, yet are based a stone's throw away from each other. For instance, the drive between Apple's and Google's respective headquarters is less than 15 minutes; Adidas and Puma have factories situated on either side of the Aurach; and Samsung and LG are less than an hour away from each other in Seoul. It may surprise you to learn that Quebec is another hotbed of tech rivalry, housing smart-clothing pioneers OMsignal and Hexoskin. Last week, I squeezed myself into the former's shirt, and now it's time to risk my dignity (and my dinner) by wearing the latter for your entertainment.
Hexoskin's new wearable is a smart shirt for exercise buffs
The wearable craze isn't only about fashionable watches and savvy glasses. After all, remember how tech giant Intel's vision for the space included a shirt? Hexoskin, a Canada-based startup, has similar beliefs, and that's why it recently introduced its biometric smart tee -- Ralph Lauren's doing it too. The newly developed shirt, aimed at people who are fond of exercising regularly, is equipped with sensors capable of tracking over 42,000 data points every minute. Naturally, given that Hexoskin designed its product with athletes in mind, the shirt's bread and butter is to gather stats during physical training sessions, although it can also track daily activities such as sleep. Unfortunately, Hexoskin's wearable is only available in the US at the moment, where the starting kit sells for a cool $399.
