Wearables: a whole new ball game

The NBA is considering putting together a list of wearables that players could use during basketball matches. At the moment, the majority of wearables are not designed with professional athletes in mind, and are instead directed at the consumer market, mainly because of existing regulations in most sports, and also because the market probably isn’t considered big or profitable enough.

Professional athletes are allowed to use wearables when training, but not during matches. This is as much to do with keeping weight down and to avoid devices blocking movement, neither is there much to be gained from the information most wearables collect. Spanish triathlon professional Jairo Ruiz told me recently that he often used a bike computer, saying it help motivate him and gave him a better idea of his strength.

But he said he didn’t use a watch monitor when competing because it was too clunky, although he did wear one for training. The same applied to his swimming, saying watches got in the way when he was trying to get his suit off as quickly as possible. In short, each sport has its peculiarities regarding the compatibility of wearing monitoring devices: in individual sports the problem is that they get in the way, and in team sports, where there is constant contact with opponents, they could cause physical harm.

But if professional sportsmen and women do start using wearables, this might well lead to improvements in such devices. Because, while the consumer market can accept significant error margins, professionals won’t.

The same applies to design: devices would have to fit the needs of professionals, down to the last millimeter. The impact on development of smartwatches could be huge. At the same time, use of devices by professionals offers tremendous marketing potential.

Just think: if Michael Jordan had used wearables during his career, the effect on sales might have been comparable to Nike Air Jordan, one of the best-selling sports products ever.

Competing on the basis of more information is not cheating; it simply offers the chance for better management and planning, as well as to develop new strategies. Imagine what a soccer coach could do in terms of substitutions if he or she knew, in real time, the physical condition of each player in the team?

What would the market analysts and sports writers be able to do with so much information? And what improvements to devices would the more stringent requirements of professionals bring with it?

This could be a whole new ball game…

(En español, aquí)