VIDEO: Under Armour 'E39' Electronic Shirt Helps Athletes Perform Better

For the last few years the word “accelerometer”  has become synonymous with Smartphones.  But now the tech is taking a jump into clothing thanks to the innovative folks at Under Armour.

They’ve developed a shirt called the E39, which combines a 4.5oz electronic monitor with their compression shirt tech.  It measures everything from accelerometry, to breathing rate, to skin surface temperature to heart rate.  Inside the tiny device, which was designed by Zephyr tech, is an SD card which stores the computer’s recorded data along with a wireless Bluetooth module which instantly transmits data to a connected computer, tablet or smartphone.

So what does this mean to athletes?  Coaches and those alike can now monitor their performance with real time data and provide them with the instantaneous feedback to adjust their game, quite literally.  A triaxial accelerometer measures acceleration and change of direction, which helps determine what part of an athlete’s stride is out of sync and thus enabling them to modify their movements on the fly and improve their running speed or agility. 

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A good example from Wired’s article:

As an example, Haley cited one highly touted running back who was recently working out in Los Angeles in preparation for the NFL Combine. The speedster was running 20-yard sprints in the E39 shirt when his coach detected a deceleration between 10 and 20 yards. The player was taking the longest strides he could, with each foot braking as he attempted to use his other foot to catch up with the one in front of it.

The E39 (the E stands for electronic and the 39 is the code for the first Under Armour shirt produced in the 90s) was on display at the NFL’s Combine this past weekend.  It won’t go on sale to the public any time soon, however Under Armour’s contracted athletes and schools, then elite trainers the company works with, followed by non-contracted teams will have access to the shirt.