From Tracking to Intelligence: Uncovering the Unmet Needs of Today's Athlete

Since the entry of wearable electronics into the consumer market, sports has been a primary focus area for these technologies. Within sports wearables, the focus is generally put on fitness tracking devices; in this report, we also look at other major applications for sports wearables: technique tracking, team strategy, and safety. To understand whether sports wearables answer the needs of today’s athletes, we perform a gap analysis between what developers and end-users of these technologies perceive as important. From these discussions, we conclude that there are gaps between what athletes need and what is available, that simple solutions can bring more value than complex ones, and that more work needs to be done until wearables can truly induce behavioral changes to enable athletes to achieve their health and performance goals.