Teijin Frontier Co., Ltd. has launched a new line of sportswear and other garments incorporating “wearable solutions”.
The sporting field is increasingly focusing on the PDCA (“Plan-Do-Check-Action”) cycle, and accordingly needs are growing for the visualization of actual motion, heart rates and activity levels to ensure safe and effective performance. With Japan’s declining birthrate and aging population, the transfer of technology skills to younger workers and ensuring safety in the workplace is becoming one of society’s challenges. Both areas stand to benefit from highly functional fibers incorporating wearable technology.
Teijin Frontier has developed new products integrating highly functional fibers and sensing techniques. Test sales will start with two types of new products, which will leverage continuing advances in IoT technology to provide new solutions to evolving social needs.
The new products comprise the following:
Coaching wear: Anti-slip Nanofront ultrafine fiber wear deploys an algorithm which visualizes the difference between the actual motion of the wearer and the ideal motion at a particular time. This technology is expected to be applied in various scenarios, including the improvement of sports techniques, the transfer of technology know-how and more effective support for those undergoing physical rehabilitation.
Vital sensing wear: These garments facilitate sustainable and highly accurate sensing of the heart’s electrical activity, heart rates and activity levels, minimizing the noise generated by contact of the body with sportswear during exercise. It combines Nanofront with vital-sign sensing technology, and by simultaneously sensing heart rates and activity levels, it can be used in various scenarios including sports team management and the prediction of heatstroke risk.
Nanofront’s high level of grip prevents vibration and displacement of sensors, allowing highly accurate measurement. In the future, Teijin Frontier plans to deploy comfortable and functional materials such as the outdoor sports textile Deltapeak and the stretchable and soft textile Solotex.
Teijin Frontier is targeting annual sales of US$3 billion in sports training, workplace applications and other fields by the fiscal year ending March 2021.