Nike has always been like Chubbs was to Happy Gilmore, helping you improve your golf game. But now it wants to do it digitally — it just earned a patent to put data-collecting sensors in clubs that would track your swing.
In one form, an analysis of your swing would be shown on a screen located on the back of the club’s head. Nike thinks this would help with custom fitting, making it more accurate and efficient. But if you’re a club-throwing Gilmore type who gets incensed when your game is off, you might want to consider something less breakable.
Nike was also granted a patent last week for data collecting shoes that would monitor how far and how fast you’re running or walking. For some of us it would confirm what we already know — we run a 15-minute mile. The data would be sent automatically to your phone or computer. Nike has sensors in a lot of other products — it already has a chip you can put in shoes that analyses your run and sends the info to your iPod. But with the new patent, your kicks would come pre-fitted with these sensors. And maybe, just maybe, they could help you become less of a slowpoke.
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