Basic exercise is good for just about anybody, but some like to take it to another level. There are many people out there who want a more comprehensive level of fitness and ask the help of their smart devices to achieve it. For these people, fitness trackers, running apps and even smart clothes are starting to dominate the fitness and training landscape as we move into the age of the Internet of Things. Given the path these advancements are taking, some may say that smart shoes are inevitable. After all, there are already smart socks. If you are one of those people, it seems that fitness startup Salted Venture, with Samsung’s blessing, agrees with you. Partnering up with Samsung, they’ll be showcasing a new type of smart shoe, called IOFIT, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
The original idea was born in C-Lab, one of Samsung’s testing beds for inspired and creative employees. The team responsible for the idea made an exit from Samsung soon after to start up Salted Venture, but their former employer held no ill will toward the; rather, Samsung offered their support. Their first product, the IOFIT Smart Shoes, will be ready for showcasing at MWC. The shoes boast a variety of sensors that feed data to a companion app. From there, your activities, ranging from workouts to weight lifting and even running can be analyzed on a step-by-step level.
Salted Venture CEO Jacob Cho said of their first creation, “There’s so much valuable information coming from our feet, and it’s being wasted,”, also saying that existing solutions are all about, “…tracking and throwing around all these data points and suggesting problems, but not providing a solution to the problem,” and that IOFIT will be centered around coaching, rather than just giving users their data and letting them figure out how to use it. The headline feature, video playback, promises as much. The processed data can also be given to a coach or personal trainer to allow for more personalized feedback. The data can also be juxtaposed and shared remotely, allowing for remote coaching. IOFIT will be shown at MWC in Barcelona, but no release data, pricing or release locations have been disclosed at this time.
