Ralph Lauren’s wearable technology shirts debut at US Open

Shirts incorporating biosensors are being seen on court for the first time at the US Open tennis tournament.

Tennis professional Marcos Giron has trained using a shirt that monitors his physiological performance – Source: GQ Italia Made by Ralph Lauren, they are being worn by ball boys at matches at the Flushing Meadows location between 25 August and 8 September.

One player also trained wearing one of the shirts. However US qualifier Marcos Giron did not appear to benefit from the wearable technology data as he was defeated in straight sets in the first round by Number 13 seed John Isner.

OM Technology
The tennis shirts are black with a Ralph Lauren logo of a polo pony printed in gold on the left breast. To develop the technology the US fashion brand cooperated with the Canadian wearable technology company OM.

Based in Toronto, OM has embedded a series of discrete biosensors to monitor heart rate, breathing and the stress levels into the shirts. Data is fed back via a system of silver wires woven into the nylon fabric then relayed to a computer or smartphone running a customised app.

Ralph Lauren
Such technology has been demonstrated before with for example the D-shirt being sold by French company Cityzen Sciences. The true significance of the US Open shirt will be if a major fashion company like Ralph Lauren is committed to making a long-term investment in smart clothing technology.

David Lauren, who is the brand's executive vice president for advertising, marketing and corporate communication spoke to the New York Times about the potential for smart clothing. He says: 'Everyone is exploring wearable tech watches and headbands and looking at cool sneakers. We skipped to what we thought was new, which is apparel - [There is] nothing clunky that you have to strap on. You are just putting on a shirt.'

The company is expected to start selling the biomonitoring sports shirts in its stores in 2015. It will be joined by a range of formal dress shirts that will incorporate the same monitoring technology.

By John Nelson, follow John on Google+

Ralph Lauren’s wearable technology shirts debut at US Open

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