Nike adds new pressure sensor trainers to its Nike+ eco-system

The Nike+ fitness eco-system launched in 2006 and has since added a number of innovative products and devices to its repertoire, like the Sport Watch and most recently the Fuelband,  as well as amassing more than six million dedicated users worldwide.

This week the brand took a further step into the world of fitness and exercise tracking as it officially unveiled Nike+ Basketball and Nike+ Training, which Mark Parker, Nike INC’s President and CEO, described as, “two new experiences connecting digitally enabled footwear with interactive mobile applications that together deliver a revolutionary sport experience.”

Both experiences utilise a new kind of pressure sensor technology, which is built into each of the different training shoes and can be used to collect a range of information about the user’s movements, which are then all wirelessly transmitted to the apps that work alongside them.

Nike+ Basketball

The Nike+ Basketball experience is designed to provide users with a much better understanding of how high, quick and hard they play each game. The first trainers to feature Nike+’s new technology are the Hyperdunk+, the Lunar Hyperworkout+ and Lunar TR1+ training shoes, which come with sensitive pressure sensors in the toe, heel, ball and outer foot that work alongside accelerometers, allowing all kinds of movement-based statistics to be collected and sent through to the app.

A big part of the Nike+ Basketball experience is about setting goals, competing with others and sharing your experiences among your social networks too. We wouldn’t expect anything less from Nike, and this kind of competition means people will undoubtedly train much harder and get better results in the long run.

Nike+ Training

The Nike+ Training experience is about high intensity fitness training to make users fitter, faster and stronger. There are lots of different interval training exercises to follow and all of the information collected from the special work out shoes gets sent to the Nike+ Training mobile app, which we reviewed last week. The whole point of Nike+ Training is to make working out into a fun game that anyone can enoy. The first NIKE+ enabled Training shoes will be the Lunar Hyperworkout+ for Women and the Lunar TR 1+ for men.

At the launch event in New York Mark Parker, President and CEO of Nike INC, said:

“NIKE+ allows us to connect the physical world of sport with the social elements of digital to create a better sport experience for every athlete, […] It’s about much more than a shoe.  It represents a shift for NIKE from product, to product + experiences.”

It’s really exciting to see Nike+ add even more innovative devices to its range of tracking products and tools, particularly those that use the latest in pressure sensor technology AND encourage plenty of healthy competition and social sharing. Now we just can’t wait to see how everything ties together with the online dashboard and the new Fuelband, which is already receiving rave reviews from amateur and professional athletes.

[Via Nike Inc]