(credit: New Balance)
The world of wearables is taking a turn as we see more nontraditional entrants into the smartwatch and fitness tracker market. The newest to jump into the game is the sportswear company New Balance, announcing that it will make its own Android Wear running watch by the end of 2016. The device will be just one part of a larger collection of "Digital Sport" wearables, although currently not much is know about the other products in the line.
According to some reports, the running watch will have a built-in GPS as well as enough onboard storage to keep some music locally for playback without a smartphone nearby. Many sports watches have these features already, with one of the newest being the Moto 360 Sport. As with Fossil's and Tag Heuer's smartwatches, Intel will provide the chips for New Balance's device, and the company has been working with other developers at Strava and Zepp to finalize it. While plenty of fitness trackers and smartwatches are compatible with the cycling and running app Strava, Zepp is a particularly interesting company for New Balance to partner with as it makes a line of "swing" tracking devices for sports including baseball, golf, and tennis.
Other than the Android Wear watch, no other specific devices from the Digital Sport range have been announced. However, New Balance is looking into embedding small sensors into clothing and footware, which would make it one of the many companies experimenting with smart clothing now. Smart shoes appear to be the first step for many companies looking to get into connected clothing; Under Armour announced the SpeedForm Gemini 2 smart shoes at CES last week (in addition to its new HealthBox), which have accelerometers embedded into the soles and may not require regular charging.
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