If you’ve ever played sports, you’ve always wanted to measure your athletic ability like the pros. How fast can you run? How high can you jump? Are you any good? The new Nike+ Sports Sensor puts a super smart sensor in your shoe that can measure all that. It’s like wearing Nike’s research lab on your feet.
Nike showed off the next evolution of Nike+ today and the highlight feature is the Nike+ Sports Sensor which seems a helluva lot like the future. The Sports Sensor is made from four different sensors inside the sole of your shoes and is strategically placed underneath your feet (big toe, heel, etc) to spit out accurate readings. The sport sensor uses pressure data in combination with an accelerometer to calculate your movement, that way Nike+ Sports Sensor can measure how high your vertical jump is, how fast you’re moving and how hard you’re working all in real time.
One of the places Nike will insert a Nike+ Sports Sensor is in basketball shoes. Nike+ Basketball will let players pair their shoes with their iPhones (via Bluetooth) to see how their numbers stack up. It’s like stats for amateurs, once you jump, your iPhone will show you how many inches you’ve lifted off the ground via the Nike Sports Sensor. You finally get to see how woeful your ups are!
Possibly more exciting to the everyman is that the Nike+ Sports Sensor will be implemented in Training. The idea is that since most amateur athletes don’t have the luxury of big research labs and/or professional trainers, Nike+ will try to re-create a similar capital T Training experience at home with Nike+ Trainer. Nike+ Trainer uses the sports sensor to collect data of your workouts to give you immediate feedback on what you’re doing right and wrong. Like a digital trainer without the intimidating biceps.
It’s not just pure reps and measurements though, Nike+ Trainer can actually build a workout schedule for you (via workout packs) and determine how intense your workout was. Also, Nike+ Trainer gives you video instructions on how to perform certain drills and offer workout games for you to compete with friends. If you have a Nike Fuelband, everything ties itself back to that as your workout is measured in Nike Fuel. On top of that, Nike+ Training will use the training routines of Nike’s athletes too so you can train just like Manny Pacquiao and LeBron James. Minus their athleticism, of course.
Nike+ Training will be available from June 29 in the Nike Hyper Workout for women and Nike TR 1 for men. Nike+ Basketball will be available in the next Nike Hyperdunk. [Nike]