Start-up develops smart sportswear to speed up recovery from injury
Belgian start-up Skinetix is developing intelligent sportswear that collects biomechanical data to enable athletes to optimise their performance and recover more quickly from injury.
The Skinetix platform collects data from sensors in sports trousers, which record movement and muscle activity in detail. This is integrated into a personalised AI model to provide information on movement quality, muscular condition and fatigue, enabling training and rehabilitation programmes to be adapted.
The Vrije Universiteit Brussel set up the spin-off with Leuven-based nanotechnology centre imec.
Transform elite sports
“With a full playing calendar, staying injury-free is a huge challenge for professional athletes across all disciplines,” said Skinetix CEO Joris De Winter.
“With biomechanical, data-driven insights from the field, Skinetix optimises the way athletes train so they perform better or rehabilitate faster. Given the cost of injuries, this technology may transform elite sports."
"Staying injury-free is a huge challenge for professional athletes across all disciplines"
For the five main competitions organised by European football governing body UEFA, injury-related costs amounted to more than 700 million euros last season.
Almost half of this cost is generated by injuries to the hamstrings, a set of three muscles at the back of the thigh. This type of injury is generally caused by a tear in one of the muscles, leading to an imbalance and overuse of the other muscles.
The platform will help a team’s medical staff by providing individual monitoring of the hamstring. In the event of injury, it will indicate during training which muscle is under stress and provide information on muscle balance and fatigue.
Skinetix is working with the Belgian Athletics Federation and several major Belgian football clubs, with whom it is testing a prototype of its trousers.
The company plans to market the product in 2026, initially targeting international football competitions, before expanding into American football, athletics, basketball and baseball.
#FlandersNewsService | Alessio Castro-Montes of Union Saint-Gilloise suffers an injury during a match against Cercle Brugge, May 2024 © PHOTO DAVID CATRY / ISOSPORT
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