Smart Shoes- a step towards smart living

Posted by KBV Research on July 11th, 2019

The smart shoes market has surfaced with the integration of sports sensors and development of sports gadgets. Soft sensor networks are circuits made out of flexible sensors that are in-built into shoes, which further helps to measure the biomechanical data. The information gathered provides individual to keep a track of their movement and in the best way, it prevents injuries. For example, Stridalyzer is an insole detecting the force and pressure, which also helps in injury prevention.

What are smart shoes?

Smart shoes produce power using different characteristics of human gait. Human gait is defined as the movement of limbs and other body parts, which results in locomotion. The natural gaits namely walking, jogging, running and sprinting and different specialized gaits are used in martial arts. Smart shoes are mechanisms that convert the energy consumed in natural human gaits into electrical energy. Such shoes store energy and provide power for electronic devices.

Smart shoes are smart technology used in footwear. It works with smartphones as its insoles are connected with different applications such as trackers, Google maps, etc. This hardware and software technologies are assembled together, continuously sharing personalized information to the customer. Sneaker design, smart connectivity, and Health analytics are some of the useful and attractive factors boosting the demand for smart shoes.

Why do we need smart shoes?

The wellness and health trend is increasing in both developed and developing countries. Adopting a healthy lifestyle by hitting the gym, taking a strict diet, and taking part in various other healthy activities is important for many people. Including the health-conscious consumers, there are others who have undertaken their health improvement processes to the next level. These groups of people are maintaining records on a daily basis for their activities in order to track their progress. Smart shoes are helpful in maintaining the records for the distance covered due to running/walking/cycling and also the calorie lost during every workout session.

Different types of smart shoes

• Smart Walking Shoes

Smart walking shoes are the type of shoes that have an embedded sensor to track the data which creates ‘walking experiences’. Since sneakers are cloud-connected, the data collected is constantly synced. This is a handy feature for those who are not interested in wrapping anything on their wrist. These shoes have gained high traction as; anything that collects data is vital and makes interpretation easy, which does wonders for personal fitness at amateur and expert levels. The shoes acts like a pseudo-personal assistant that help individuals stay healthy with less input, interaction, and cost.

• Smart Running Shoes

Smart running shoes help end users to track the distance covered and calories burnt. Customers can access the data using various connected apps in smartphones or related devices. This helps in maintaining records and tracking fitness. In order to help the customers, manufacturers mainly focus on innovating smart running shoes. This product is expected to increase traction among the sports people and professional athletes which contribute towards the adoption of smart shoes.

• Smart Sports Shoes

Smart sports shoes offer a multi-sensor system including the distance of the midsole that syncs shoes to smartphones and also provides useful data. They also predict the stride length, speed, distance traveled and the pace too. The connected applications provide real-time suggestions on minimizing the chances of getting injured, increase in performance, and making adjustments.

Benefits of smart shoes

Smart shoes serve to enable new solutions and services to promote healthy living and the alteration of health care. Smart shoes are an attractive form of smart devices for the purpose of mobility assessment for three reasons mentioned. Smart shoes hold a rigid sensor position on the foot, providing exact and flexible biomechanical analysis. Secondly, smart shoes are used in monitoring the gait, enabling the automated assessment of functional biomechanics. Lastly, smart shoes allow a non-stigmatizing and non-obtrusive integration of technology, eventually improving patient acceptance and long-term adherence. It is planned that the sporting goods industry produces a number of sensor-equipped smart shoes capable of monitoring fitness and health conditions.

To sum up

The smart shoe market is rising at a significant pace owing to a wide range of factors. These factors are extensively helping in the proliferation of the smart shoes industry, with further growth in adoption of the technology and an increase in popularity for smart wearable. Smart and customized shoes are the latest trends in the online footwear industry. For the diversification of the product portfolio, the vendors along with customized and personalized shoes for the customers. To attract a lot of customers, the vendors introduce innovative and customized footwear’s. For example, smart footwear like step-counting shoes has acquired popularity mainly among people involved in fitness and athletic activities. Moreover, the Global Smart Shoes Market is estimated to grow at a market growth of 8.7% over the predicted period.