What does Google's collaboration with Adidas, EA Sports Mobile mean?

Project Jacquard was first announced way back in 2016. The product was touted as a smart-jacket featuring touch-sensitive fabric developed by Levi Strauss and it was expected to retail at $350.

Even though the talks around Project Jacquard seemed to have silenced, it isn't dead whatsoever. A couple of days ago, Adidas teased its grand collaboration with Google Advanced Technology and Projects Group and EA Sport's FIFA Mobile on Twitter. The tweet did not lay a proper exposition on the topic but just stated, "Play Connected."

In September 2019, Google announced its second generation of Jacquard smart fabric technology and now it seems like the company is aiming at creating products based on this technology.

What can Jacquard do with Adidas, EA?

Given the new collaboration, we hope that this time around it would be Adidas responsible for sourcing the clothing material. These pieces of clothing are expected to accept gesture and sensor-based inputs such as brush up/down, double tap and cover gestures. These sensor inputs would be processed and communicated to your smartphone via the Jacquard tag device, which was introduced last year in September. The collaboration could result in some sort of smart sportswear such as a track or athletic jacket, but the product can also turn out to be something entirely different.

The involvement of EA Sports in the collaboration of the trio suggests that the resulting product could also have something to do with gaming. Even though the teaser reads, "Play Connected," we aren't sure how a smart jacket would come to the use of an avid FIFA gamer.

Currently, Jacquard technology is only available on a select Levi's jackets and Yves Saint Laurent backpack. However, the new teaser suggests that what we would be looking at could be athletic apparel incorporating the smart-fabric technology.

Additionally, the teaser also mentioned March 10 as the date when more information about this collaboration would be unveiled. That is two weeks from now and until then we can either engage in mindblowing speculations or sit back and relax until the official announcement.

Nonetheless, you can always check back on IBTimes India to learn more about Project Jacquard and as well as the upcoming 'athletic apparel'.