MARIO CAMEROTO, LONDON
Q Can I turn my regular trainers into smart trainers?
A Well, it’s probably easier to add smarts to your shoes than it is to find a pair of kicks with brains built in. The plug-in sneaker market basically consists of party-only AliExpress light-up stompers and the Nike Adapt and Puma Fi, two sets of self-lacing shoes that don’t seem to have lasted long past a brief 2019 Back to the Future revival fad. Okay, that’s not entirely true. Under Armor has made the actually-smart HOVR Phantom shoes and apparently named them after a specific kind of ghost, and smaller companies are trying every ounce of their luck in the market. But they shouldn’t. You know why? Shoes don’t actually need to be smart.
For all intents and purposes, your wrist is as good a point for smart wear as any. Digital chicanery means a sufficiently advanced watch can work out the length of your stride just fine. It can measure the impact
