Global Running Gears Market is expected to reach USD 22.54 billion by 2023

Published On: January 2018

Running Gear - Track your Run

Due to lack of time and busy life style of people, the demand of fast food and drinks is increasing. The health issues such as obesity, respiratory problems and high blood pressure has forced people to get aware of their health fitness. Technology developments coupled with electronic gadgets surge the demand of running gears and wearable like fitness trackers. These user friendly electronics gadgets help user to track all activities on daily basis. Running gear and fitness trackers also helps to monitor heart-rate, and sleep pattern.

The rise of wearable

In current scenario, fitness trackers, whether hip (Fitbug) or wrist-based (Fitbit) have been incorporated into the banner of wearable. This umbrella term includes smart watches wearable cameras and augmented and virtual reality headsets. Fitness trackers and wearable, in general, are becoming more and more mainstream, the validity of these devices in their ability to improve health and fitness. Wearable technology helps to bridge the gap between patients who have access to rather intensive weight loss treatments.

Fitness technology which includes trackers and smartphone applications (apps), has become increasingly popular for measuring and encouraging physical activity in recent years. However, many questions remain regarding the effectiveness of this technology for promoting behaviour change. Behaviour change techniques such as goal setting, feedback, rewards, and social factors are often included in fitness technology. These include action planning, restructuring negative attitudes, enhancing environmental conditions, and identifying other barriers to regular physical activity.

Smart Running Shoes: Simply more

Smart technology is everywhere, it came as no surprise to many when the footwear industry embraced it. Smart technology embedded in soles connect to a smartphone app that provides data. Running shoe with smart technology involve smart insoles placed under regular pads. Sensors implanted into the insoles transmit users running performance & techniques to lightweight & water-resistant hubs that attach to the outside of shoes. Smart shoes offer the possibility to support prevention, diagnostic work-up, therapeutic decisions, and individual disease monitoring with a continuous assessment of gait and mobility.

Smart shoes are an attractive form of smart devices for the purpose of mobility assessment for three reasons. Firstly smart shoes have a predefined, rigid sensor position on the foot, providing accurate and flexible biomechanical analysis. Secondly smart shoes can be used to monitor gait, a highly stereotype movement that enables the automated assessment of functional biomechanics. At last, smart shoes enable a non-obtrusive and non-stigmatizing integration of technology

In the apparel segment Shirts, socks, jackets, eyewear, and other apparel are the commonly used fitness apparels. Further, polar team Pro Shirt, Nadi X yoga pants, Lumo Run, and AIO smart sleeve are some popular running apparel embedded with smart sensors. For instance, Polar Team Pro Shirt comes with GPS sensor technology used to track motion and heart rate metrics in real time.

Running Gear and Internet of Things (IoT)

The Internet of Things is a collection of connected sensors, which is actually a much more multifaceted concept. It involves not only in connection and integration of devices that monitors the physical elements such as temperature, pressure, altitude and many more but also the aggregation, relationship and analysis of the information. More importantly, the activities thus far to integrate, standardize, relate, and take action on IoT devices are at a similarly early stage. For instance, the wearable activity tracker and the emerging industry of tracking physical and health activities. These devices are one of the most prominent offerings in the IoT platform. Activity trackers are only somewhat useful in their current state. Most of them measure only a few activities, vary in their reliability of measurement and physicality, provide little interpretive analytics, can present technical challenges to all but the most technically capable, and are poorly integrated with other health data devices, sites, and sources.

How long it will take?

As with the domain of health and fitness, the IoT has the potential to reshape a variety of consumer and industrial environments. But this potential can’t be realized by focusing only connectivity of low-cost sensors. In order to be successful with the IoT, firms should be placing most of their attention on the integration, analysis, value-add, and action processes around IoT data. Firms need to focus not only within their own products and services, but outward to a complex ecosystem of partnerships and collaborations, with a variety of business and public policy motivations, which will have to be supported to succeed.

Role of E-Commerce in running gear market

The increasing adoption of internet & smartphones, increasing middle-class population and rising disposable income are some of the crucial driving forces for the high growth in e-commerce industry. The e-commerce giants are providing various discount vouchers and occasional benefits to attract the customers on their portals. Here, the running gear manufacturers such as Fitbit, Xiaomi, Nike, Apple, Samsung and others market players providing their product portfolio of fitness devices and wearable to maximize their profitability and market growth. Further, increasing usage of internet through smartphones for surfing, to use social media and to do shopping from the mobile apps, is also expected to drive high growth in fitness wearable and running gears in the coming years. 

Running Gear Market: Running ahead

The future of how wearable could impact lives remains relatively unknown, however, many companies have begun to set out their cubicles, predicting what the next big thing will be. One such avenue that’s being explored is taking the fitness tracker off the wrist and moving it to the finger in the form of ‘smart jewellery’. The smart ring uses an optical heart rate sensor and an accelerometer able to track activity type, and active minutes, similar to current fitness trackers. Another wearable aiming to solve a fitness health-related problem is the Upright Go. This device claims to assist in correcting the wearer’s posture and develop sustainable back health.

There have been many prototypes and concepts developed in recent years such as biometric clothing smart yoga mats. They have been developed that supposedly accurately measure and correct alignment. Whether or not these particular products ever achieve mass appeal remains to be seen.