Original 2021 statement: Most of your clothing will be smart, connected, aware - helping you with fitness, health, and safety
What Jim has written about this
From “20 Trends into 2030: Are You Ready for The Massive Transformation of Just About Everything?” (December 2019)
Food: We used to eat the same food that everyone else ate. Now, we eat food that is grown specifically for our particular DNA, and matched to our particular metabolic profile, based upon real time insight from monitoring technology built into our smart phone and clothing. A world of continuous body and health monitoring has appeared, driven by the idea that the glycemic index of an apple for one person is entirely different from that for someone else. We’ve gone from from food manufactured for mass consumption to food that is personalized based on the ideas of mass customization! Many consumers have a one-to-one relationship with distant and local food production companies and the agricultural community based on hyperconnected plants and animals. 3D printed food is found within most homes, leading to a renaissance and explosion in new menu concepts and taste sensations. The explosion of vertical farming in agriculture has also led to the mass addition of in-home food production technology.
Clothing and fashion: The arrival of smart, connected, intelligent clothing led to marriage of fashion, healthcare and wellness. New fibres and textiles that are smart now link into the data-grid around you, adjusting their warmth and cooling cycles based upon real time information analysis. New textile science has also led to clothing that evolves it’s form and function based on local conditions - clothing that cools with built-in refrigerant technology and coats that warm you through smart carbon-fiber heating tech. Not to forget that glasses, contact lenses and other health related fashion items have become increasingly integrated into your overall ‘clothing infrastructure,’ a phrase that took on increasing importance through the decade with the arrival of all this smart-clothing.
Sports, fitness and recreation: A simple wooden baseball bat now exists only in a museum : the baseball bat of 2030 is now wirelessly connected to a web cam that automatically records a player’s swing style and speed. Kids live in a widely interactive world in which they are aware of all sports results and actions instantly through an online connection. Skis and boards are hi-tech snow devices, providing coaching direction and real time route planning. Sports coaches have immediate access for coaching purposes. Golf? Every golf ball has a Webcam, and sharing your ace in an instant with a birds eye view of its path is a common reality - for those lucky enough to have a hole in one.
From “From NASA to Nestlé: 250 Customized Keynotes, One Futurist!” (July 2026)
Customized keynote topics have included: Technology for growing golf participation • Smart and connected sports equipment • Wearables and smart clothing in sports • Interactive and immersive fan experience • Genomic-based sports medicine • Drones in golf and sports • Spatial and location intelligence in recreation • 3D-printed sporting goods • Future of fitness and wellness technology • Personalized nutrition and wellness trends • Ski resort and outdoor recreation innovation • Big data in golf performance analytics
For over 500 dealers and senior leaders, Jim explored the future of the connected home, integrating renewables, battery storage, HVAC systems, electric vehicles, smart grid technology and thermostats into one connected ecosystem. Lennox’s CEO, who discovered Jim on YouTube, later credited the talk with helping “shape our strategy” and “accelerate our thinking.”
Customized keynote topics have included: Technology for growing golf participation • Smart and connected sports equipment • Wearables and smart clothing in sports • Interactive and immersive fan experience • Genomic-based sports medicine • Drones in golf and sports • Spatial and location intelligence in recreation • 3D-printed sporting goods • Future of fitness and wellness technology • Personalized nutrition and wellness trends • Ski resort and outdoor recreation innovation • Big data in golf performance analytics
From “Trend: Wearables Disappear as Smart Clothing Dominates” (June 2016)
Are wearables about to disappear, and become a ‘technology from the olden days?’ They might as smart clothing comes to dominate our world of movement and fitness tracking in the coming time.
The estimates for the growth of the smart clothing sector indicate that it is certainly a “next big thing:” Tractica, a research firm, predicts total shipments of smart clothing growing from 968,000 units in 2015 to 24.8 million by 2021; another firm, Research & Markets, expects growth from 140,000 units in 2013 to 10.2 million by 2020.
spatial awareness capabilities: you or your personal trainer will be able to determine if you are using the right muscle group for the exercise at hand. The clothing will allow for monitoring of your body position from a 3D perspective on a connected mobile or table device.
Read the full pieces on jimcarroll.com:
20 Trends into 2030: Are You Ready for The Massive Transformation of Just About Everything?
From NASA to Nestlé: 250 Customized Keynotes, One Futurist!
Trend: Wearables Disappear as Smart Clothing Dominates