Smart Nanotextiles for Sports

Sport, by its very nature, is a competitive activity that pushes the bounds of human activity. Increasingly, technology has played an important role in influencing sport, driven by; market forces, technological advances, miniaturization and appetite for data. Clothing and smart nanotextiles now represent a significant area for competitive and commercial advantage through Drucker’s adage “what you measure tends to improve” if these technologies have a performance measurement component. Historically, sport scientists have always had a very good idea of what they would like to measure. They even have a very good idea how they could measure it. However, they have been limited by the measurement process which has often required artificial laboratory environments to do so. The recent development and miniaturization of sensors that measure various complex characteristics, such as position, speed, acceleration, absolute angle, relative angle, angular velocity, angular acceleration, load, moment, pressure, surface area, and thermal inputs (both internal and ambient) have seen something of a revolution in sports science. Miniaturization of sensors and accompanying data collection systems mean this can now be collected without hindrance to the athlete, improving both the accuracy and ecological accuracy of the data. Smart nanotextiles are emerging from this process as next-generation products, with the potential to allow nonimpeding data measurement that can be performed outside of the lab, over much longer duration, and in real-life environments, than lab-based techniques could ever provide. Potentially, even in competition events. Commercially, much of the same information has also been desired by the amateur athlete and fitness enthusiast, who have previously been constrained by cost and availability. This chapter will examine how both groups can have their needs addressed through the emerging applications of smart devices now being incorporated into textiles in sports, based on current and emergent technologies.