Overview:

The concept of smart shoes have come a long way ever since they were first introduced. Back in 2012, the Nike+ Training Shoe was introduced by Nike that was capable of measuring the no. of times the feet touched the ground, for how long the foot was off the ground and the place of contact. However, in recent years, many companies around the world have launched smart shoes with advanced functionalities aimed at capitalizing on the huge opportunity existing in the market.

Growing concern for fitness is one of the most prominent factor complimenting the adoption of smart shoes. Smart shoes offer various advantages such as improving upon how fast/far someone runs and also how well someone runs. Various parameters including foot landing, time on the ground and cadence are taken into consideration in order to measure the performance. The opportunity present in the smart shoe market can be understood from the fact that, alone in the U.S., over 60% of the 36 million active runners suffer some kind of injury each year. Smart shoes in this regards can help to reduce such injuries.

Moreover, technological advancements is another prominent factor leading to the smart shoes market growth. For instance, Nike spent 11 years of research and development in order to develop its self-lacing shoe; the HyperAdapt 1.0. The shoe was an instant hit in the market and Nike has plans to launch a newer version of the shoe soon. Improving standard of living is another important factor spurring the smart shoes market growth. With rising disposable income in countries such as China, India and Brazil among others, people are in a better position to invest in smart technologies including smart shoes.

Strategic partnerships between shoes manufacturers and tech companies is one of the common trends witnessed in the market. This strategy helps the shoe manufacturers to leverage the technological expertise of the tech companies. For instance, recently, Li-Ning, a leading China based sportswear company launched a smart shoe in collaboration with Xiaomi. Similarly in 2016, Lenovo in collaboration with outsole maker Vibram, developed a smart shoe capable of tracking the calories burnt and counting the steps. This strategy further helps the smart shoe manufacturers to develop shoes with varied features. Therefore, the demand for smart shoes is expected to rise in the coming years with the emergence of such advanced features.

Global Smart Shoes Market is segmented into the following categories:

• By Shoe Type
  • Fitness Tracking Shoes
  • Navigation Shoes
  • Self-tightening Shoes
• By End-user
  • Men
  • Women
  • Kids
• By Sales-channel
  • Online Platforms
  • Offline Platforms
• By Geography
  • North America
  • Europe
  • Asia Pacific
  • Rest of the World (RoW)

Key Players Identified in the Smart Shoes Market include but are not limited to:

Boltt Sports, Nike, Inc., Under Armour, Inc., Li Ning Company Limited, Digitsole, Shanghai Runmi Technology Co. Ltd., Xiaomi, Inc, Adidas AG and Sensoria, Inc. among others.