No-sweat skiing: Bluetooth-ready clothes that regulate body temperature – and a ski glove you can use to make and receive phone calls
- A smart jacket that pumps sweat away, a mid-layer that activates a heater to warm you up, heat-retaining leggings – wearable tech for skiers
- There’s even a glove that doubles as a phone, with a voice-activated call function.
Wearable technology is a trend across many sports at the moment, allowing users to do everything from monitoring their heart rate to controlling their body temperature – and few activities lend themselves to this better than skiing.
Not only does the body have to deal with the physical exertion involved in the sport but it also has to cope with temperatures that in a single day may vary by as much as 30 degrees Celsius (85 Fahrenheit) – usually on the minus side of zero.
Wearables that regulate body temperature are one application of new technology to the sport. A good example is the KJUS 7Sphere Hydro_Bot jacket (kjus.com), which applies an electrical pulse to actively “pump” sweat away from the skin (where it can lead to cooling and, in extreme circumstances, hypothermia) by a process known as electroosmosis.
The system works via two panels strategically placed on the high-sweat zone at the back of the jacket.
A membrane on the jacket made up of trillions of pores per square metre is surrounded by conductive fabric which, using a small electrical pulse from an integrated control unit, turns the pores into “micro-pumps”, moves sweat away from the body and out of the jacket quickly and efficiently.
