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Ralph Lauren

Ralph Lauren to push its sport apparel with smart t-shirt linked to fitness app

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By Tony Connelly, Sports Marketing Reporter

August 21, 2015 | 2 min read

The PoloTech t-shirts will partner with an Ralph Lauren app, providing stats similar to the Apple Watch but with added benefits.

Ralph Lauren is making a serious push to market its sporting apparel with the announcement that it will release a high-tech workout t-shirt with sensors that measure a number of biometric stats and feed them back to an app.

The lifestyle brand has revealed its PoloTech apparel t-shirts, which have been made in collaboration with Montreal-based tech start up OmSignal.

With a pricing point of $295, the t-shirts are considerably more expensive than Ralph Lauren’s other sporting t-shirts however the details of aesthetics reveal why.

The PoloTech t-shirts have what is being marketing as a “second-skin” fabric which has silver fibres woven directly into the fabric and a small, sensor-filled black box sown into the shirt near the rib cage which will track biometric stats such as steps taken, heart rate, breathing depth, and energy exertion.

Previously the technology was tested by ball boys at last year’s US Open tennis tournament and top-ranking player, Marcos Giron, wore one of the t-shirts during practice. It is now set for release next week.

The idea behind the fitness-based app is already present in many mobile devices as well as most prominently in the Apple Watch. However Ralph Lauren’s mobile app is attempting to do something different from the Apple’s smartwatch, it will offer real-time analysis and workout suggestions based on the biometrics the person is showing at the time.

The Polotech t-shirts are due for release on August 27 and the app is only available on iOS.

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