Smart fitness clothing got a boost this past week as upstart Athos secured a $35.5 million investment led by Social Capital.
The round includes participation by apparel giant MAS Holdings, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Felix Capital, as well as existing investors DMC, early FitBit investor True Ventures and angel investor Joe Lacob, managing partner and chairman of the Golden State Warriors.
Athos makes form-fitting fitness apparel with integrated sensors that can give users instant body feedback, including muscle performance, heart rate and acceleration. The data is streamed to the user’s mobile device, along with actionable feedback.
Athos officials said they will use the capital “to continue to drive
innovation in wearable fitness technology, scale to support increasing
consumer demand and grow its team.”
Smart clothing is looking to capitalize off the success of FitBit and other wearables to increase the amount and type of body feedback users can then use to measure improvement and/or adjust future workouts. The challenge for brands will be to create technology that is unobtrusive and comfortable, easily removable for cleaning and care, simple to use, and, of course, stylish. Most fitness experts also agree, the ultimate hurdle for wearables is translating the information into actionable results.
Athos CEO and co-founder Dhananja Jayalath said many people spend hours in the gym every week, but don’t know which exercises are yielding the best results.
“So we set out to build something that could help us reach our personal fitness goals, something that would help us do the right exercises, with the right form, at the right intensity,” he said. “Whether you are trying to get stronger, lose weight or just feel healthy, we want to help you get the most out of your time and effort so that it’s easier to reach those goals.”
In ramping up its business, Athos recently appointed Don Faul as its new COO and Rose Yao as its vice president of product. Faul brings sales and marketing experience from Pinterest, Facebook and Google, while Yao brings product leadership experience from Facebook and Google.
Investor and Golden State Warriors CEO Joe Lacob said the Warriors have begun using Athos’ technology as part of their training arsenal.
Athos was founded in 2012 by co-founders Jayalath, Christopher Wiebe and Chamath Palihapitiya, and was born from an advanced engineering project at the University of Waterloo. Athos’ technology, which is embedded into the clothing, incorporates electromyography, or EMG, to measure muscle activity.
–David Clucas
