Wearable Devices in Sports Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

Wearable Devices in Sports Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The Wearable Devices in Sports Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9.82% over the forecast period. The wearable technology and devices market is unfolding at a rapid pace. With the industry going towards a focal point, businesses are prioritizing service enhancement, apart from adding additional new features to the device itself. Wearable devices have remained a significant part of the sports industry, supporting the athlete to stick to daily routines and giving important information on various parameters it is programmed to control. Integration of analytics tools for better evaluating and analyzing this data to improve the performance or handling of overall personal fitness has sustained the need for wearable devices in the sports industry.

Key Highlights

• The growth in the wearables market can be attributed to increasing demand coupled with the propagation and suitability of improved communications protocol and miniaturization of sensor technology. Sensors and wearable devices can be combined into multiple accessories such as wristwear, garments, shoes, and eyeglasses because of their compressed or compact size and superior integration technologies.
• The factors influencing wearable devices in the sports market include the entry of big players, portable and comfortable usage, elevated healthcare awareness, the soaring cost of manufacturing, and technological progressions. These essential factors have encouraged the adoption of wearable devices. Wearable devices such as activity trackers, smartwatches, and smart clothing are preferred among customers, owing to their numerous advantages, including portable usage and the most modern and advanced technological advancements.
• Wearable electronic devices find various applications in fitness and sports for controlling and monitoring parameters such as heart rate, calorie consumption, sleep, and blood pressure. Wearable devices permit a user to check health-related information on their smart wearables.
• One of the main obstacles anticipated to restrain the market's expansion during the forecast period is the high cost of innovative wearable technology. Most firms in this sector are releasing their products under the category of premium products, which are not affordable for many users and restrict the products from reaching economies of scale.
• The COVID-19 pandemic has positively impacted the Wearable Devices in Sports Market. By incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) technology into fitness, COVID-19 has accelerated the creation of fitness apps for athletics. Apple has updated the Cardiogram app, which analyses users' heart rates, with a new sleeping beat per minute (BPM) feature for users with COVID-19 to monitor heart rate changes.

Key Market TrendsSmart Clothing Set to be a Significant Contributing Factor Towards the Growth of the Market

• Smart clothing/textiles are fabrics that are manufactured and designed to integrate technologies that offer the wearer increased functionality. These textiles have various potential applications, such as communicating with other devices, conducting energy, transforming into different materials, and protecting the wearer from environmental hazards. Increasing R&D towards wearable textile-based personal systems, e.g., health monitoring, protection, safety, and healthy lifestyle, gained strong interest over the last few years.
• Smart fabrics and interactive textiles activities include personal sports management through integration, validation, and use of bright clothing and other networked mobile devices, as well as projects targeting the integration of sensors/actuators, energy sources, processing, and communication within the clothes to enable personal applications such as safety/ protection, emergency.
• Various types of smart clothing, from socks and gloves to pants, shirts, and bras, are increasingly utilized to monitor sports activity and gather formerly unavailable but noticeably precious data. This affords an unlimited possibility to look at athletes for the duration of training and competition, providing more effective training and higher protection protocols.
• Smart clothes allow users to identify violations within the organs' structures and help determine the factors that affect the results in sports. Smart clothing helps in the prevention of injuries and fatigue, the timely identification of diagnosis of functional disorders in athletes, and identifying the first signs of pathological conditions. At the same time, stationary periodic examinations are not always informative. Screening-evaluation of the body's functional state is possible during the period of stress and rest. Such advantages are driving the market growth.
• Further, with smart clothing, the more significant function is the passive function, where sensors monitor the athlete, either physiological measurements or physical movements. It can make smart evaluations based on the data and delivers real-time feedback suggesting that the athlete work harder, rest, or correct their technique. Because of this analysis, the players or the team can be benefited. Sports organizations are giving priority to these analyses in sports, which is driving the market growth.

North America to Provide Significant Opportunities

• Internet and cloud technology penetration, the emergence of professional leagues, and the digitalization of sports are driving the adoption of sports technology in North America, especially in the US. Wearables are already popular in the US soccer culture.
• The US Soccer athletes have been wearing them while playing for many years. Companies like STATSports and Catapult Sports, which are popular in the GPS tracking space, have greatly benefitted from these trends.
• The increasing demand for wristwear and bodywear products has led to the growth of wearable devices in North America's consumer products sector. Additionally, US-based companies' increasing developments and innovations have contributed most significantly to the region's market and, specifically, in the United States, resulting in a significant increase in the usage of wearable devices.
• The factors influencing the North American market include major market players, portable and comfortable usage, expanded healthcare awareness, the hovering fee of manufacturing, and technological progressions. These vital elements have advocated the adoption of wearable devices for sports in the region. Wearable gadgets, including pastime trackers, smartwatches, and bright clothing, are desired amongst customers due to their numerous advantages, transportable utilization, and maximum current and superior technological advancements.
• Furthermore, significant growth in strategic developments, such as partnerships, and acquisitions, is witnessed in the region to boost the market growth rate. In January 2021, Google announced closing the USD 2.1 billion acquisition of Fitbit, an American Company. Fitbit Sense is Fitbit's newest and most advanced health and fitness wristwatch. It includes stress management tools and new ways to manage heart health, such as an ECG app to check for atrial fibrillation.

Competitive Landscape

The wearable devices in the sports market are moderately competitive and mostly comprised of startups. Several sportswear brands have entered the market. With the increasing importance of performance and rising levels of competition in the sporting industry, the market is poised to witness substantial growth over and beyond the forecast period. Overall, the market provides significant opportunities for technology companies that target the niche (sports) in the large wearables market.

• January 2022 - The pitching-focused company KineticPro Performance, established by former professional pitcher Casey Mulholland, has partnered with Nextiles, a maker of smart fabric technology. Real-time biomechanical analysis of the arm would be provided by the KineticPro Sleeve using thread-based sensors that have been carefully positioned directly over the elbow. The elbow force and arm torque could be measured because of the mechanical changes caused by bending, stretching, and twisting the fabric using Nextiles' sensors.
• January 2022 - To address the performance data requirements of athletes and sports enthusiasts, Mojo Vision has been developing several strategic partnerships with fitness businesses. Adidas Running (running/training), Trailforks (cycling, hiking/outdoors), Wearable X (yoga), Slopes (snow sports), and 18Birdies would be among the company's original partners. Mojo Vision would investigate further smart contact lens interfaces and experiences to comprehend and enhance data distribution of data for athletes of various skill levels.
• May 2022 - Realtrack, a Spanish maker of sports wearable technology, has been acquired by Agile Sports Technologies, Inc.'s Hudl. The WIMU PRO system, Realytrack's flagship athlete monitoring tool, measures athletes' workload, intensity, healing, and recovery during practices and games. With the help of this acquisition, Hudl can join the wearable and player monitoring market.

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