If you’ve played EA Sports’ FIFA mobile game for some time now and always thought to yourself “I think I could do that in real life”, now is the time to put that to the test. Adidas, Jacquard by Google, and the game developer have teamed up to create a bridge between the physical and digital football world. The adidas GMR is a smart insole with a Jacquard tag that you can place in any adidas footwear that can map and measure your movements so you can apply it to the mobile game.
If you remember, Jacquard tried to make wearable technology into something you could actually wear (aside from your wrist) and their first product was a Levi’s trucker jacket. That didn’t really catch on since no one wanted to wear a bulky, smart jacket. This time around, they have collaborated with adidas and EA Sports to come up with the adidas GMR. Basically what you do is insert the tag onto your shoes and it will be able to measure things like strength, speed, distance, etc.
All of these things measured can then be mapped onto the FIFA mobile game so you can earn rewards, win competitions against your friends, rise up in the global leaderboards, and improve your Ultimate Team Overall scores. Real-life players can also probably use the machine learning aspect of it for their training, although that may not be the primary purpose of this product. Still, because the tag has tiny motion sensors and a processor, you can also use it for other things.
The three companies are hoping that this product would appeal to football fans who love to play the mobile game and the real-life one. The adidas GMR is priced at just $35 and supposedly can be used with any adidas football spikes or footwear. There is no announcement yet as to when it will go on sale and where it will be available.
So FIFA mobile game players, would this be enough incentive for you to go out and play a game of football on the pitch? If you like boosting up your score and getting some exercise, then the answer is likely a yes.
