Why Does The Uniqueness Become A Fetter? When Will Spring Of Smart Shoes Come?

How many of the wearable smart devices are there? How many friends are there? How many friends have you put on your beloved watch and put on the smart bracelet? Brush your WeChat circle to see how many people are drying their sports data. With some curiosity and some doubt, are you able to buy a pair of shoes with positioning function for your child? The appearance of wearable smart equipment is not two days a day. As early as 2006, Nike and Apple jointly released the Nike+ iPod smart wearable device, but the Nike+ that won the eyeball did not really burn up.

In the past two years, with the sharing of economy and virtual social networking in China, the emergence of smart shoes has begun to show itself.

Including Internet giants and traditions

Even large multinationals have been testing water smart shoes.

Google, Nike, Adidas, Lining, 361 degrees, Chi Chi technology, double Chi, perfect, cloud, magic orange...

Many well-known and unknown enterprises at home and abroad have launched an exploration in the field of intelligent footwear.

However, in

Behind the surface of the scenery, it is still difficult to escape the fate of the user Tucao - "too bad positioning, if the child really lost, how can it be found?" "it's really terrible, the critical moment is no electricity!" "even the simplest distance is not allowed, is this high-tech?" "who can think of shoes will also crash?"

Originally, it was born on the east side of technology. But when the user experience was one hundred and eight thousand miles away from high technology, smart shoes were regarded as the gimmick of business speculation by more and more people, while consumers who still willing to pay the bill were the first to eat crabs with entertainment and interest.

In March 18th,

Research firm IDC released a report that it is expected that by the end of 2016, global wearable device shipments will reach 110 million, an increase of 38.2% over the same period last year.

It is worth exploring that in this attractive cake, how much can a smart shoe get? Can high technology be trusted, is it just a gimmick of smart shoes? What is the future trend of smart shoes?

Why does uniqueness become a fetter?

According to the data released by ID, wearable devices (including smart watches, clothing, glasses, footwear) increased by 171% in 2015, with a total sales volume of 78 million.

Among them, Fitbit 2015 sold about 21 million devices, millet sold about 12 million devices in 2015, and about 10 million 600 thousand devices were sold in Apple Watch2015.

Analysis shows that the global sales of smart wearable devices are mainly due to the support of the three elements of products, such as "show", ecological maturity and giant leadership.

"The potential of the smart shoe market is enormous, and targeted products can be developed for different groups of people."

Dr. Lining, director of the center for sports science research at the, said: "the value of smart shoes is not just about clothes and trends.

2016 is the year of big data. The data of sports habits of smart wearable hardware are of great value to consumers and brands.

On the one hand, it can provide consumers with better exercise evaluation or other training related guidance suggestions. On the other hand, it can also plan better products and services for consumers through the integration of big data on the other hand.

For example, we can see from the data that the areas or routes that the runners are more concentrated can consider opening shops or engaging in interactive activities in these areas, so that consumers can buy products and experience services more closely. "

In the wearable smart equipment, the smart shoe is not the largest shipments at present, but its uniqueness is irreplaceable.

In the eyes of Chen Weidong, founder of Chi BIE Technology Co., Ltd., the biggest difference between smart shoes and other wearable devices is that the pressure of bipedal walking can be converted to electricity, thus generating self generating capacity.

"Although the sway of the hand can bring a little kinetic energy, it is very small. It can not meet the energy supply of large power smart hardware at all.

For this reason, I think the potential of smart shoes in the future may exceed other intelligent devices. "

Unfortunately, this unique feature does not make smart shoes stand out from the wearable smart devices. Most of the smart shoes on the market are still like other wearable devices, replacing battery or charging as a way to supplement their power.

The same is for battery and battery charging. How can smart shoes match other intelligent equipment? After all, it is hard to recharge stinking shoes.

The so-called intelligence of smart shoes is nothing more than a function of positioning and calculating, so that the embarrassing situation of smart shoes in the market can be seen.

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"The energy generated by walking does not need to be recharged". The uniqueness of the smart shoe that should become the selling point has become the biggest bottleneck in its development. At present, the research and development is still in the initial stage of exploration.

Dr. Lining, director of the center for sports science research of, said that the smart shoes that can be generated from human body movements are an important direction of research and development. At present, Lining brand has begun to explore this aspect. But the more powerful and intelligent the hardware is, the stronger the demand for electricity is. The power stored by walking, running or cycling is temporarily unable to fully meet the huge energy demand of smart shoes.

In early 2015, the British Mirror reported that the German researchers developed an automatic lacing shoe with an energy collection system installed inside the shoe to pform the energy of the user's movement into electricity.

The "swing collector" in the shoe is placed at the bottom of the automatic lacing shoe. When the user's foot swings because of the movement, it will move the magnet inside the sensor line to generate electric current. The swing sensor will collect and store these energy for shoes.

But it has not achieved ideal results in energy harvesting, so researchers at the Institute are still improving their efficiency.

In China, technology companies that conduct in-depth research on smart shoes from power generation technology are few and far between.

In this field, Microsoft's partner, Zhi Zhi shoes Technology Co., Ltd., after decades of exploration and precipitation, uses the pressure generated by people walking in shoes to form the principle of magnetic line cutting, and gets a steady stream of green energy in shoes. It eliminates the trouble and inconvenience caused by users' frequent charging for intelligent hardware. Now, it has developed the first generation outdoor intelligent positioning shoes, which are generated from power generation, and will be put into mass production in the year.

It is reported that the new product is specially designed for outdoor travel, field work, military and other fields. It is not only comfortable and skid proof, but also keeps track of the wearers' activities, has the function of emergency positioning and alarm, and can even charge emergency for small smart devices such as mobile phones.

In addition, the smart positioning shoes, designed to ensure the safety of children and the elderly, will also be released in the near future.

Where is the pain of consumers?

Smart shoes are a cross domain product, its foundation is shoes, but it also carries the characteristics of intelligent technology products. But throughout the market, dozens of smart shoes products basically stay in the "intelligent concept" aspect, and there are various problems in products, such as the duration of flight, the matching of intelligent hardware and shoemaking, comfort and appearance, etc.

Consumers' expectation for smart shoes is not only comfortable, beautiful and fashionable, but also accords with the basic functions of shoes.

Under such high expectations, the core must also ensure the safety and stability of the shoes. After all, the shoe and other wearable equipment are different. It has to adapt to all kinds of weather changes and bad environment. Whether it is windy and rainy, it is at the temperature of 40 degrees Celsius or 30 degrees below zero, whether it is on the urban road with good road condition or on the rough and muddy road in the road. The shoes with intelligent modules must adapt to all kinds of tests, operate normally and ensure the safety of the wearers.

Such smart shoes have high requirements for technology, and there must be corresponding standards to ensure their quality and safety.

"The industry standard of shoes products has been very perfect, but now many smart shoes products on the market do not meet these standards, especially the quality of low-end products is very worrying.

The definition of smart shoes is relatively vague. Any intelligent module or function can be called smart shoes, so the product can achieve thousands of changes, and it is difficult to formulate targeted standards.

There is no standard in the industry standard for intelligent modules, so it is not surprising that the quality of smart shoes is uneven and the function is not stable.

Lu Hua, director of the shoes Committee of China Leather Association, said.

"In the past, we did not allow electric appliances in the shoes, but with the progress of science and technology and the change of market demand, the footwear Standards Committee was also communicating with the GB to make corresponding adjustments."

Xiao Xia, director of the shoe inspection and testing department of the China leather and footwear industry research institute and the Secretary General of the national footwear Standardization Technical Committee, said: "adding electronic accessories to wearable equipment has become a demand of consumers.

I think the standard setting of smart shoes is feasible, but it is very specific that we need to draft corresponding standards on its technical requirements, how to discriminate the quality of such products and how to detect them.

But overall, whether such products have lasting vitality is still unknown.

China wearable alliance Secretary General Yang Xin said, for enterprises, the lack of standards will make wearable devices difficult to expand to medical, pension, tracking and positioning of children and other social hot spots, directly restricting the rapid development of the market.

Because wearable devices require users to wear for a long time, the safety and quality of wearable devices will inevitably become an important factor affecting their popularity.

The safety of wearable devices, batteries, power adapters, wireless connection, electromagnetic compatibility and harmful substances need to be evaluated in all aspects to maximize the potential harm to users.

At the same time, the accuracy of the basic data and the defects of the software are all worth considering, especially the implanting products, which directly affect human health, and need to be regulated by the industry standard.

In March 2015, China wearable alliance organized the "China wearable alliance standard" closed door work. The alliance initiated the Ministry of industry and commerce to explore the wearable standard system and promote the establishment of the industry standard.

However, the formulation of standards is by no means an overnight move. It requires the participation of a large number of enterprises, industry organizations and research institutes. The standard setting of smart shoes is still in the exploratory stage. The leading enterprises in the industry are also referring to the industry standards of shoes in terms of shoes production, referring to the mobile phone standards of the Ministry of information industry in terms of the production of intelligent module hardware.

When will spring of smart shoes come?

No one will question the development potential of smart shoes, but where is the next stop for smart shoes? Dig a hole and install Bluetooth, configure a step or inductor. Are these really the expectations of users for smart shoes? Can the smart shoes open up their own blue ocean when they are duplicated with other wearable products? Where are the pain points of consumers?

"Without changing the user's life and habits, we can really perceive the problem of feet, solve the problem of feet, integrate traditional shoemaking technology with modern technology, and have a good shoe with the smart effects of safety, health, movement perception and medical treatment on the basis of self power generation, which is the real need of users. This is also the real pain point for consumers to pay for smart shoes."

Chen Weidong believes that most of the products on the market are just scratch their feet, and they do not catch the real pain point of consumers. Their so-called intelligent function is even more questionable.

For example, children's loss prevention positioning shoes are not accurate positioning; two, it is difficult to locate the missing children only by location coordinates. Without the support of government resources, there is no all-around data integration and integration linkage of the Internet of things. Finding someone is like looking for a needle in a haystack. The three is frequent charging and unsustainable power supply, which may cause the intelligent shoe to lose signal at the critical moment.

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From the market as a whole, the main body of R & D smart shoes is technology companies, but it is hard to call them professional in the adaptation of shoemaking technology and technology. The two is the traditional shoe factories, but they are outsiders in terms of intelligent technology and Internet applications.

Only by combining strength and strength can we achieve a qualitative leap and breakthrough in resource integration.

Intelligent wearable equipment has unlimited possibilities.

Lining, director of the center for sports science research, Dr. Lin Yongjia, pointed out that in the research and development of intelligent wearable equipment, Lining brand is collaborating with the leading intelligent hardware manufacturers in various industries. He said: "when developing an earphone that can monitor heart rate in real time, we will work with professional earphone production team. If you are professional in basketball intelligent hardware, we can cooperate in the field of basketball related products.

At present, we are developing an insole that can monitor the way of running in real time. It is cooperating with a team that has specialized in running posture research at Harvard University.

Chen Weidong, founder of Chi Zhi shoes Technology Co., Ltd., said: "hi-tech companies may not have the channels and fast production capabilities of traditional shoe companies, and shoes companies lack real Internet thinking. I think it is not feasible to sell such innovative products with traditional selling ideas, because it is not a traditional product.

The connection between traditional shoes and consumers at the moment of sale is basically terminated. Unless the shoes have quality problems, the connection between smart shoes and consumers at the time of completion of sales is just beginning. The data of consumers' foot data, trajectory and so on are all in your database. This essential difference determines that it should be positioned, sold and served with a completely new mindset.

Abroad, there are many examples of developing and selling smart shoes.

The intelligent shoe incubation platform is supported by the Putian Footwear Association. The main purpose is to make shoes enterprises develop in the direction of intellectualization, to get rid of the dependence of most small and medium-sized shoe enterprises on foreign trade orders, and to enhance the competitiveness of shoes enterprises in terms of technology and technology, which is supported by the footwear association of Shanghai, using the local shoe industry resources, including the double car enterprises and the software teams from Shanghai, Fuzhou and Fuzhou.

It is understood that the incubator has provided free offices for 5 teams, opening up resources for their design, manufacture and sales.

Putian's local shoe enterprises have been working with these teams in varying degrees. It is expected that the new smart shoe products will be put into the market this year.

The combination of smart shoe technology company and traditional shoe brand can bring the true take-off of smart shoe collar, but the key is that the two must reach agreement on the demands of consumers and set up a common goal - to create smart shoes products that meet the real needs of consumers, to solve the pain of consumers, rather than create a temporary trend.

"It is not easy to work hand in hand from two different fields. Different ways of thinking, different cognition of products and different goals create many obstacles to cooperation.

We hope that more traditional shoe companies can break their prejudices, embrace new ideas in the Internet + era, and join hands with technology companies to sneak into the new blue ocean of smart shoes.

Smart shoes are both traditional footwear products and Internet products in the new era. The greatest test that these two characteristics bring to us is not from products, but later technical support and services. Software and hardware need to be maintained and upgraded. Consumers' demands may change and upgrade. A powerful technology and service team is needed to follow up, which requires financial and technical support in many aspects.

Only by catching the pain point with consumers and satisfying the consumers, can the smart shoe products be truly successful.

The views of Chen Weidong, founder of Chi Zhi shoes Technology Co., Ltd. are surprisingly convincing.

For the future development trend of smart shoes, he put forward a new perspective in the classification of people wearing shoes. He believes that smart shoes are aimed at health care shoes for elderly people, anti lost positioning shoes and intelligent heating shoes; outdoor health shoes, intelligent sports shoes and positioning shoes for sports groups; safety positioning shoes for children, health correction shoes, virtual game shoes; intelligent shoes for reducing weight and intelligent shoes for women's groups.

Imagine that if there are intelligent shoe products that can cure beriberi or other health benefits, if we can really rely on locating shoes to find the missing elderly and children, if smart lace gives us not only entertainment but also the convenience and comfort of life brought by technology, if the data of intelligent shoes can really connect with the Internet of things, why should we worry that no one pays for smart shoes? When that day comes, we will also usher in the spring of intelligent shoes.