A lot of companies believe the Internet of Things won’t just rest in our pockets but will be the pockets themselves, that our apparel will quantify us, track us, commodify us. From Sara Germano at WSJ:

Under Armour Inc. has some out-there ideas for your clothes.

The athletic-gear company has been spending big to buy developers of apps to monitor personal fitness, aiming in the short term to sell more shirts and shoes. Longer term, Chief Executive Kevin Plank envisions a time when clothes themselves become the means to track movement and biorhythms.

“If we believe that our future is going to be defined by these hard pieces of glass or plastic that sit in our back pockets, you’re crazy,” Mr. Plank recently told investors. “It is going to convert into apparel.”

Under Armour sees its acquisition of fitness apps, including two deals announced this year, as establishing a beachhead within a community of people who want to be measured—a relationship that could pay dividends if connected clothing were to become a reality.

Futuristic gear has long appealed to Under Armour, though its track record is spotty. The company spent nearly $1 million developing high-tech racing suits for the 2014 U.S. Olympic speedskating team, but the garb was criticized and ultimately discarded by the skaters. A 2011 project to develop an electronic shirt that monitored biometrics evolved into just a heart-rate strap. The company then phased out the strap because production, which involved 13 different parties on five continents, was too difficult, Mr. Plank said.

From that experience, Under Armour has dropped any ambitions to develop hardware but it hasn’t given up on electronic clothes.•