我们可能很快就会穿上智能健身服

    曼哈顿的纽约时装周和皇后区的美国网球公开赛之间架起了一座“桥”，这里说的可不是横跨纽约东河的那座，而是可穿戴设备。如今，嵌套可穿戴科技的新式服装功能性和舒适性兼备，势将在时尚界占领一席之地。

    举例来说，美国著名品牌拉尔夫•劳伦就推出了售价295美元的PoloTech系列智能运动衫，其中镶嵌的传感器可以收集手机穿戴者的心率、肌肉压力状况以及能量消耗，并传输至配套应用。类似的还有售价169美元的加拿大品牌Hexoskin运动背心（奥运会和其他一些职业运动队员都在使用）、以及加拿大智能服装品牌Athos推出售价298美元的长袖运动衫，特点都是贴身、速干排汗，并可通过与传感器连接的蓝牙实时传输体能数据。智能健身服制造商Physiclo采用内置电阻片的智能面料设计了短裤和紧身裤，可以帮助用户调节并促进热量燃烧，提升锻炼效果。

    There’s a bridge between the runways of New York Fashion Week in Manhattan and the U.S. Open in Queens, and it’s not the one spanning the East River. Wearable tech embedded in an emerging breed of clothing designed for functionality and fitness is also poised to make a fashion statement.

    Ralph Lauren’s $295 PoloTech shirt , for example, is outfitted with sensors that transmit data to an app on the wearer’s heart rate, stress levels and energy output. So are Hexoskin’s $169 tank tops (used by Olympians and professional sports teams) andAthos’ long-sleeved $298 shirts that fit snugly, wick sweat, and stream physical data to sensors that connect to a Bluetooth. Then there are Physiclo’s shorts and leggings designed with resistance panels of smart fabric that tone and boost the calorie burn during a workout.

    加拿大蒙特利尔智能服装制造商OMsignal的联合创始人兼首席执行官斯蒂芬尼•马索指出，其他品牌也在涉足这一领域。OMsignal与拉尔夫•劳伦合作推出了PoloTech系列。马索说，从大品牌流露的浓厚兴趣来看，可以预计，智能健身服会迎来大发展。Physiclo首次在众筹网站上募资就超过了原定目标，共有800多名用户订购，等着今年11月新品上市收货。

    与智能健身服齐头并进的是热度渐增的运动休闲潮流，由于奢侈品牌和面料供应商介入，瑜伽长裤和帽衫的品位明显提升。市场研究公司NPD Group数据显示，去年运动休闲领域销售额达到350亿美元，约占全美服装市场总销量的17%。

    功能胜于形式

    许多观察者认为，可穿戴技术未来能否真正吸引到用户，例如那些对苹果手表不感冒的女性，取决于功能，并非时尚程度。市场推广公司Clique的联合创始人兼首席执行官凯瑟琳•珀尔说：“如果市场上的公司能推出的产品能提高日常效率，又或者能巧妙解决某个具体问题，而其他设备都做不到，那我们肯定会蜂拥购买。”她认为，智能服装制造商不应该仅仅考虑服装的功能，更应该利用技术提高日常效率，然后再想穿着方式如何能既独特又安全。

    Physiclo的联合创始人弗兰克•姚（音译）告诉《财富》杂志，这正是Physiclo的目标。他说，即使内置电阻的健身服已经上市了一段时间，该司为开发新型黑色健身短裤和紧身裤仍然花了两年时间，不断试错。开发的难点是制造一种更贴身又稳定的面料。换言之，就是要寻找一种锻炼时不会随意拉伸和滑落的面料。这种面料可以提升健身效率，原本要花30分钟才能达到的目标将只需20分钟。

    姚还说，Physiclo的终极计划是在产品中运用促进肌肉表现的技术，提高健身效率。姚一再表示，“我们的产品绝对不想被看成深夜电视购物广告上推销的那种”，与此同时他也提到，和另一位联合创始人、前奥运会选手基斯•斯玛特都很清楚，提高健身效率的同时收集相关数据的具有重要价值。

    智能化健身服

    NPD Group的科技业分析师本•阿诺德认为，智能健身服有巨大潜力。他注意到，人们健身时对器械的需求并不稳定，腹肌练习器械和健身球就常常被丢在一边，但衣服总得穿。那为什么不穿智能服装呢？他认为，上衣、短裤和紧身裤实质上属于健身器械的一部分，而且是更有可能长期使用。

    阿诺德指出，人们通常对健身追踪设备先是追捧，然后弃而不用。NPD的研究预计，在过去四年稳步增长后，健身活动追踪设备的产量到2016年会达到巅峰，达到约3200万部。他相信，智能健身服“不会受到消费者变化无常的喜好影响。我就总觉得，追踪健身数据时传感器应该放在更合适的身体部位，比如腿上。”

    OMsignal的首席执行官马索认为，健身服的变革势不可挡。OMsignal目前致力于开发新型文胸，因为文胸紧密贴近人体，可以方便收集非常核心的数据。马索说：“女性对数据都很感兴趣。”他还透露，OMsignal计划与一些品牌携手推出专为滑雪和跑步等运动设计的智能健身服。

    马索坚称，穿戴传感器的观念将很快“进入大众市场”。他还说，相信大品牌的加入会“迅速推动大众穿上智能服装”。（财富中文网）

    译者：Pessy

    审稿：詹妮

    Other brands are stepping into the space, too, says Stéphane Marceau, CEO of OMsignal. Co-founder of the Montreal-based maker of smart garments that partnered with Ralph Lauren on the PoloTech shirt, Marceau believes that smart athletic apparel is poised to break out, given the interest he’s seen from big brands. Physiclo’s debut campaign on a crowdfunding site exceeded its original goal and has over 800 people signed up to receive the garments as soon as they are shipped in November.

    Smart athletic apparel is lapping at the edge of a growing trend in athleisure where yoga pants and hoodies are elevated by luxury brands and fabrics. According to the NPD Group, a market research firm, sales in the sector reached $35 billion last year, representing about 17% of the entire U.S. clothing market.

    Function over form

    Whether these wearables will catch on — including with women who have generally not warmed to the Apple watch — depends on their utility, rather than fashion, many say. “If a brand is able to produce an item that creates everyday efficiencies or solves a problem in a way that no other device can, we will get on board in droves,” says Katherine Power, cofounder and CEO of Clique, a marketing company. Rather than think about the capabilities of a dress, she posits, smart apparel makers need to start with improving a daily function through technology and then figure out how that technology can be worn in a unique and safe way.

    That’s the goal at Physiclo, co-founder Frank Yao tellsFortune. Developing the sleek, black shorts and leggings took two years of trial and error, he says, even though weighted resistance workout wear has been on the market for a while. The challenge was to create a fabric with better anatomic fixation points. In other words, bands that didn’t stretch and fall down while you exercised. And ones that were capable of compressing the time spent exercising from 30 down to 20 minutes.

    Eventually, says Yao, the company plans to incorporate technology that will stimulate muscles and increase the efficiency of a workout. “We definitely don’t want to be seen as a late night infomercial [product],” Yao maintains, while pointing out that he and cofounder Keeth Smart, a former Olympic athlete, understand the value of collecting workout data while enhancing exercise.

    Smart fitness wear

    Ben Arnold, a technology analyst at the NPD Group, contends that smart fitness wear has lots of potential. While an ab crunching device or exercise ball are often shoved aside, Arnold observes you still have to wear something when you work out, so why not a smart garment? Shirts, shorts, and leggings that are an actual piece of athletic equipment would also be more likely to be used in the long term, too, Arnold says.

    He notes that fitness trackers tend to be embraced, then abandoned. NPD research projects that activity trackers will peak around 32 million in 2016 after logging steady growth for the past four years. Smart wear, he believes, will be “immune to fickle consumers. I always maintained that there are better places on the body like legs,” to track fitness data, he says.

    For Marceau at OMsignal, that evolution is inevitable. Currently, OMsignal is working on developing a bra since it’s an item of clothing fitting closely to a part of the body that could collect core vital signs. “Women are interested in data,” he say, adding Msignal also plans to collaborate with brands on smart wear forsports such as skiing and running.

    This notion of wearing sensors is “going to become mass market” very fast, Marceau insists, adding he believes soon big brands will putting “smart apparel on people’s backs rapidly.”