Category: Gadgets

With a large number of different wearables on the market, it was the Sensoria Smart Socks that took the prize.

Though the majority of people picture fitness trackers and smartwatches when they think about wearable technology, it was a type of footwear that managed to take home the top title in the category from IDTechEx Printed Electronics USA 2015.

The event was the largest printed electronics and sensor event that has happened anywhere on the globe.

Though the competition was fierce, the “Best New Wearable Technology Device” that was named at the event was the Sensoria Smart Socks. They Printed Electronics Award was given to the footwear that was infused with textile sensors. The award itself was a recognition of the innovation, development and success of the company behind the wearable device.

Among the judges that determined that the smart socks should be the winner were several well known names, such as the U.S. Olympic Committee Senior Sports Technologist, Dr. Mounir Zok, PhD, as well as the London College of Fashion’s Head of Fashion Innovation Agency, Matthew Drinkwater. The award was presented to Sensoria by Henri Richard, the senior vice president of Sandisk Corporation.

This title is a highly coveted one by newcomers to the wearable technology industry that have released their first product.

According to the Sensoria CEO, Davide Vigano, “It’s such an incredible honor to be chosen for this award and especially by such an esteemed group of industry leaders.” He went on to explain that the team at Sensoria spent four years in research and development for the creation of their wearables in the form of smart socks. They had several challenges to overcome in order to ensure that they would be not only practical and functional but also comfortable for the wearer.

The final version of the wearable technology socks was created in order to ensure there would be a number of different potential applications throughout several industries, such as in fitness, sports, and even medicine. The smart socks have three soft, thin textile pressure sensors embedded within them. Any data collected from the socks is transmitted by a magnetic Bluetooth smart anklet that snaps onto the socks and wirelessly sends the info to the Sensoria mobile app.

The fashion design house has only just recently launched its first wearables and is now jumping in faster.

Despite the fact that Misfit remains a startup that has been around for only four years, its successes in wearable technology have caught considerable attention from the industry, to the point that it is now being bought out by the fashion giant, Fossil Group.

Among Misfit’s most popular wearables have been the Shine, Shine 2, link, Flash Link and EKOCYCLE Field Band.

Misfit’s wearable technology has been focused in the highly successful fitness category. It was founded by veterans of the industry such as Sonny Vu, AgaMatrix’s Sridhar Iyengar, a well as the former CEO of both Pepsi and Apple, John Sculley. It has managed to carve such a significant name for itself in this already competitive industry that Fossil Group has been watching it and has now decided to buy it.

The purchase of Misfit will set Fossil up to make some much more sizeable steps into wearable technology.

Recently, Fossil launched the Q Founder based on Android Wear, which was its first ever smartwatch. That said, a partnership with Misfit will make it possible for future wearables from the designer to be able to offer a broader spectrum of different features that consumers may find to be appealing and useful.

Misfit has been a wearables innovator, making it possible for it to help Fossil to place itself into a more important position within the wearable tech industry as a whole. This is particularly important as Chinese devices makers are now aligning themselves to start to release alternatives to the current options, which will likely appear at a lower price point. Large companies and watchmakers such as Fossil, that are hoping to make and hold an important position in the industry will need to ensure that their products are both stylish and that they will stand apart from the rest of the offerings.

Misfit will bring a number of wearable technology advantages to Fossil, including a spectrum of products, its own devices, its hardware and software engineering team, and a scalable cloud and app platform.