Salted Venture, a spin-off startup from Samsung's experimental C-Lab, has brought its Iofit smart golf shoes to Kickstarter.
They're designed to improve golfers' balance and weight shift in real time in order to give you a smoother, more reliable stroke and greater swing power. The Early Bird price for any of the sizes, style and colours is $209 ($189 Super Early Bird) for one pair (RRP $399) with shipping set for February 2017. Salted Venture are looking to raise a modest $30,000 target.
Designed for coaches and individuals, each shoe is packed with sensors in the outsole so there's no impact on the fit or comfort. That's also where you'll find the Bluetooth transmitter to send tracking data wirelessly to your iOS or Android smartphone/tablet.
Read this: Iofit smart golf shoes first look review
Those motion and pressure sensors are able to measure force at multiple points, which combine to determine aspects like balance, weight shift, location of centre of gravity, ground contact force and more.
Users will also be able to see data on step count, duration and distance. In real time, you'll also be able to see more complex metrics like weight shift, feet pressure map, ground contact force and feet tempo. There's support for video comparisons and coaching software letting you see a summary of swing form, along with recommendations of customised training videos to give you a helping hand.
The washable smart shoes should offer around 7 - 10 days battery life with support for wireless charging. The built-in battery also knows when the shoes are not in use to help preserve battery life.
The smart shoes were shown off at MWC 2016 in Barcelona alongside a slightly cheaper fitness version for gym lovers. We got a chance to see try them out and check out the companion app. We haven't golfed with them yet but the good news is they're comfortable and you don't see the sensors. The app, which shows data collected from under the feet, is responsive as you change the pressure. Since then, the shoes have been beta tested in fitness centres.
Read this: Forget the wrist and smarten up the shoes
Smartening up the shoe is becoming a bit of a wearable trend in 2016 with US sports giant Under Armour having already launched its Speedform Gemini 2 connected running shoes, while Nike has filed a patent for its own smart shoe.
If you're wondering why balance is such a big deal for gym workouts and going for a round of golf, Jacob Cho, CEO of Salted Venture breaks down its significance.
"Balance is an essential aspect of all fitness workouts and golf swing mechanism," Cho said. "Without it, there is greater exposure to injury and wasteful energy consumption, making fitness workouts a lot less effective and dangerous. For golf, proper balance and weight shift is crucial to generate club head speed and power. We wanted to solve this problem not just with our guts, but with actual data telling us how we are performing."
How we test
By Michael Sawh
Michael Sawh has been covering the wearable tech industry since the very first Fitbit landed back in 2011. Previously the resident wearable tech expert at Trusted Reviews, he also marshaled the features section of T3.com.
He also regularly contributed to T3 magazine when they needed someone to talk about fitness trackers, running watches, headphones, tablets, and phones.
Michael writes for GQ, Wired, Coach Mag, Metro, MSN, BBC Focus, Stuff, TechRadar and has made several appearances on the BBC Travel Show to talk all things tech.
Michael is a lover of all things sports and fitness-tech related, clocking up over 15 marathons and has put in serious hours in the pool all in the name of testing every fitness wearable going. Expect to see him with a minimum of two wearables at any given time.