GROW 2014: Wearables are the sports industry’s new secret sauce

Vancity Buzz is excited to partner with GROW Conference 2014, bringing you a series of in-depth articles featuring the brands, brains and breakthroughs that will be at its 5th year. Heading to the hyper-connected hills of Whistler, BC, August 20-22, GROW dives headfirst into the Internet of Things, from robotics, drones, smart devices, and the connected everything.

This article is the third in Vancity Buzz’s GROW 2014 Series, featuring the tech world’s leading wearables.

In the high stakes world of professional sports, teams are always on the lookout for tools that will give them the edge over the competition – and wearables are the secret (and legal!) sauce that they’ve been waiting for. This year’s GROW Conference will dive headfirst into wearables, making sense of the hype and demonstrating the real value they are providing into the evolution of sports, not to mention, health.

Thanks to the latest technology, coaches and training staff are now able to monitor player-positioning data, cardiovascular activity, and yes, optimize sleep patterns – boosting game play, and honing an athlete’s sports instinct. The 2013 Seattle Seahawks were a force to be reckoned with on the field, but it took more than brilliant coaching, strategy, teamwork and incredible athletes to get their Super Bowl. The Seahawks were one of a handful of teams who used a sleep-monitoring app to track their resting patterns and focus on ultimate alertness for high performance. An increasing number of athletes across many industries are doing the same, choosing from a handful of wearables that then synch to apps on smart devices.

Wearables do provide benefits beyond the bedroom, like advanced warning of obstacles for races, quickest routes and fastest times, for all those quantified selfers out there. Wearables also provide coaches and training staff with the data they need to optimize a player’s recovery. With tech like the Misfit Shine, training staff is able to monitor a player’s nutrition, cardiovascular activity and sleep patterns – a game-changing advancement that is giving trainers the ability to maximize a player’s muscle recovery and growth. Misfit is one of the innovative wearable tech companies that will be at GROW, providing attendees the opportunity to test out their physical prowess on fitness hackathons, runs, yoga and bike rides led by top athletes.

Other mind-blowing wearables on display and available to play with at GROW 2014 include Under Armour, Strava, Jawbone and Recon Instruments.

Join 1000+ attendees as they hit the hills, ride the trails and participate in mountain top yoga, competing against one another. The future of wearable tech is at GROW, get your tickets and join in the fun, now!