Nike Smart Shoes Communicate via Bluetooth

Nike Smart Shoes Communicate via Bluetooth

Built-in Bluetooth smart sensors track parameters of athletic activities and report back to Nike+ applications and Web sites to convert that data into training information.

Do you pronate? Do you need to lengthen your stride? Are your splits negative? For years, your trusty running shoes have kept secrets about your training and what you could do to improve. Today, Nike’s much anticipated Bluetooth connected Nike+ Training shoe, the Nike Lunartr1+, and the Nike+ Basketball shoe, the Nike Hyperdunk+, are giving a voice to all the secrets your shoes have been keeping about you. Built-in Bluetooth smart sensors track how hard, fast, and often you train, and how high, quick, and hard you play, and report back to the popular Nike+ applications and Web sites to convert that data into training information. Thanks to Bluetooth, you now have a vocal training partner with you every step of the way.

While previous versions of Nike+ training systems included a proprietary in-shoe sensor pod, the new Nike+ Training and Nike+ Basketball shoes use Bluetooth technology, allowing the shoes to tap into a massive network of Bluetooth devices, rather than communicate back to just one device. This means Nike, and more importantly, its consumers, have the freedom of choice and can pair their Nike shoes with a wide range of Bluetooth Smart Ready hub devices. These will be the second and third products released this year from Nike implementing Bluetooth technology—the Nike+ FuelBand uses Bluetooth for its wireless connectivity as well.

Suke Jawanda, CMO, Bluetooth SIG, said:

“Bluetooth technology is changing the way manufacturers look at connectivity and the potential of their products.”

Increasingly, Bluetooth technology is being used to allow billions of diverse products from countless manufacturers to speak the same language. This results in unmatched convenience for the consumer, flexibility for the product manufacturers, and now access for application developers.

Bluetooth technology, a relative newcomer to the sports and fitness market, is quickly becoming the wireless solution of choice due to its ubiquity, performance, and low cost. Bluetooth is a royalty free standard technology. According to IMS Research, more than 60 million sports, fitness, and health monitoring devices with Bluetooth technology are expected to ship between 2010 and 2015. Industry leaders like Polar, HIOD Sports, Wahoo Fitness, and Nike are using Bluetooth technology to connect everything for their sports and fitness monitoring solutions.

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