New Yoga Pants Might Change The College Experience
The yoga pant craze hit college campuses hard and, nowadays it isn’t uncommon to see hundreds of females sporting the loungewear on and around campus.
The reason? Not because they’re yoga enthusiasts (usually), but rather that the pants are a comfy alternative to jeans, and give off a classier look than the traditional sweat pant. It’s fashionable, comfortable and gives the illusion that you like to work out — it’s really the perfect product.
Still, you can almost bet that if you stopped a female to ask her about a yoga pose, she’d have absolutely no clue how to do it.
In comes the Australian company, Wearable Experiments.
The company has developed a yoga pant, called the Nadi Smart Fitness Pants, that will actually vibrate when the user correctly holds a yoga pose. Or rather, the pants will create a soothing, “om” vibration sound, meant to keep the peace in the art of yoga.
The “sound” is created through synchronized pulsing. When a user is incorrectly posing, the pants will vibrate (in a non-soothing manner) to alert the user so that they can correct it.
While these pants are the butt of many jokes, they are also a fun, innovative way to teach yoga without requiring users to attend a costly or embarrassing class.
Also, the pants can be worn simply as a fashion item if users so choose, as the vibration is a setting that can be turned on or off through a mobile app. So just because you’re done working out does not mean you have to change — the lazy college student’s paradise.
But now for the downsides, and there are a few of them.
For one thing, the technology only recognizes four, very well known, yoga poses (Warrior One, Two, Three and Pigeon). However, while these are rather popular, through the company’s research, they’ve also found these are the four poses typically done incorrectly.
Another downside is that the pants can only be washed up to 25 times, something not exactly ideal for the avid workout.
Yoga teachers that have reacted to the new technology fear that the pants won’t have the same teachable quality that a real-life yoga teacher would — a legitimate concern. Yoga is largely variable depending on injuries, posture etc., so not every person will be able to achieve the same pose exactly.
Also, there’s the fact that many aren’t sure the technology will even work — the location of the censors (only on the legs), doesn’t account for the upper body, which is also critical in achieving correct yoga poses.
Even so, there are other yoga enthusiasts that can’t wait to see the product’s capabilities, as it’s a new, unique idea that, at the very least, has sparked enough interest to become major news.
The peaceful means of exercise and meditation now has new opportunity for users to practice in solitude, something that some will find unhelpful while others will find the new technology very useful.
At the very least, yoga might just gain a few followers that either want to learn or are just curious as to what the new technology is capable of.
But still, with the rising interest in yoga, the pants do make sense on many levels, and while it’s hard to say whether the product will fall flat or completely take off, the idea is bound to spark some more in the near future, for better or worse.
In the growing age of female-oriented fitness technology, with devices such as the Bellabeat Leaf, for example, this is wearable technology that’s truly fascinating, and at the very least, it’ll be interesting to see where it leads us.
The product isn’t yet available, but it’s something to keep your eye out for (and joke about with your friends) for the next few months.