om beginnings om beginnings
Pushing the boundaries with yoga pants
T
he yoga pants of the future will
be able to read your mind. Well,
not quite, but entrepreneur Billie
Whitehouse and her company
Wearable X are getting ever
closer to that rather alarming vision, forever
pushing the boundaries of fashion and
technology.
Remember: this is the company that
designed Fundawear, a prototype vibrating
underwear for couples in long distance
relationships that can be controlled by
smartphones.
Moving swiftly on...the latest designs from
the lab include Nadi X yoga pants, which
have sensors sewn into the fabric to help
the wearer improve form across 30 different
yoga poses.
The pants - connected by wireless
Bluetooth technology to a companion
app - identify each pose and provide real
Clever pants
time feedback through gentle pulses that
draw awareness to the focal points for each
asana. A battery, known as the ‘Pulse’, clips
behind the upper left knee of the wearer
and powers the sensations in the pants. The
frequency and intensity of each vibration
and rhythm encourage the student how to
steer their body in the pose.
Whitehouse said the idea for the pants
comes from her own yoga experiences.
“I was never really good at yoga and felt
intimidated whenever I would explore a new
pose,” she said. “Throughout creating this
product, we worked with over 50 yogis across
three different continents to understand the
importance of alignment in time and space.”
The yoga pants are available in a variety
of colours: Midnight (solid), Midnight (with
mesh), Black/White (with mesh) and Navy/
Gray (with mesh). They’re not cheap though
and are expected to retail at about $299.