Li-Ning partners with Xiaomi, introduces Smart Shoes

Everything’s going smart these days, and the “smart home” plans that have been surfacing every year have arrived with the formal “home automation” label. Home automation is only a subset of the “Internet of Things” (or IoT), a concept that looks to take the internet and turn everything into an internet source.

So far, watches have become smartwatches, glasses are turning into smart glasses (if you count Google Glass, Sony’s own $800 pair of glasses, and Samsung’s plans for smart glasses of its own), and technology and fashion are merging with each passing day. Xiaomi, known for its smartphones, smart fitness band, and home automation products such as its smart lamp and Wi-Fi amplifier, is now back to create the Li-Ning Smart Shoes.

The Li-Ning Smart Shoes feature a module sensor inside the sole that records the fitness data, such as steps, distance, calories, and so on, along with a Bluetooth chip that makes it possible to transfer health data. The smart shoes are water-resistant, sweat-resistant, with military-grade motion sensor chips that are required to analyze your health data. The Li-Ning Smart Shoes come in colors such as dark and light orange, “tennis ball” yellow and green, light green, light and dark blue, gray, along with the traditional black and white colors, and retail for two price points (199 yuan, 399 yuan) and go on sale in China on July 20th.

Li-Ning’s new Smart Shoes will add even greater significance to the smart clothing movement, a movement which seeks to transform how we obtain and analyze data beyond devices like smartwatches that we wear on the wrist. The athlete will now have another choice in buying smart accessories, and the Li-Ning Smart Shoes line will help athletes in the event that their smartwatch batteries die in the middle of a sports practice or major competition event. The Li-Ning smart shoes are said to last only a year, though, so smart shoes will have to increase their durability in order to gain mass market adoption. At this point, it’s certainly a creative idea, and there is an athletic market to which Xiaomi and Li-Ning can market them.

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