Smart footwear market due for rapid growth

More than 6 million units of smart footwear will ship in 2021, up from just 300,000 this year, ABI Research predicts. This would represent a CAGR of 82%.

“The growing elderly population is driving change in the way healthcare can and will be provided, and remote monitoring is one aspect of the m-health industry that can cut costs and improve care,” said ABI Research analyst Stephanie Lawrence said.

By supporting sensors within shoes or smart socks, home monitoring and remote patient management applications can track a host of valuable parameters with minimal disruption to those being monitored.

Lawrence further explained that new home and remote patient monitoring smart footwear devices also grant healthcare providers 24×7 access to in-depth, real-time health updates concerning their patients’ posture and gait.

“Such detailed reporting used to be constricted to a hospital bed; now healthcare providers can paint a fuller picture of their patient’s health outside of the hospital, ultimately allowing them to better monitor ongoing issues and make more accurate diagnoses,” he said.

ABI Research said that for remote patient monitoring, companies are already turning to smart footwear as a form factor to support diagnostic medical data collection. This includes companies like Plantiga, FeetMe, and Orpyx.

For instance, diabetic patients are at risk for peripheral neuropathy, or sensory loss, and often cannot detect dangerous pressure levels in their bodies. Orpyx’s SurroSense RX has insoles that use sensors to detect the amount of pressure that a person places on each part of the foot. The device can then alert the user and his/her doctor to any issues.

“Rising vendors in the smart footwear market need to develop devices that can detect exactly how a person is walking, and provide accurate feedback concerning any issues,” concluded Lawrence.

“This will ensure that healthcare workers receive detailed health information about their patients, and will allow the smart footwear market to continue to advance and grow significantly.”