Google and sports apparel company Adidas have announced a new partnership which ties together Google’s Jacquard smart clothes tech, with Adidas sports know-how and the EA Sports Fifa Mobile app.
The Adidas GMR is powered by Google’s Project Jacquard, created by their Advanced Technology and Projects division which was spun out of Motorola after Google purchased and then sold the company. Jacquard was announced in 2015 as a touch sensitive textile which was later woven into a Levi’s branded denim jacket offering touch controls for your phone on the jacket sleeve.
Instead of being woven into a sleeve, Google’s Jacquard comes in the form of a smart tag. The tag slips into an inner-sole (sizes 4-13.5) which you can place in any boot of your choice.
The tag itself has an accelerometer, gyroscope, and microprocessor embedded inside which then interacts with the FIFA Mobile app, or the Adidas GMR app (both available for iOS and Android). The tag can track football related skills such as number of kicks, shot speed, run speed, and total distance run.
While tracking that data is important, it can also be fun with Adidas GMR users able to improve their standings in the FIFA Mobile app by completing challenges which elevates their OVR rating.
Moritz Kloetzner, Adidas Football said
Adidas GMR Lives at the intersection of gaming and the material world because that’s where the audience is. By exploring and challenging traditional approaches to product development, alongside Jacquard by Google and EA Sports FIFA Mobile, we have been able to equiop players with a whole new way to use their creativity for the betterment of sport.
If it sounds like the perfect training partner for you, the Adidas GMR is available now in Australia on the Adidas website for $60 plus delivery.
