Ralph Lauren is one of the world’s more exclusive fashion designers. They are known for à la mode clothes and perfumes that reside in the upper fiscal hemisphere. However, they are not so well-known for fusing technology into their designs, until!

This year’s tennis major, the US Open saw the unveiling of the Polo Tech Shirt. Polo Tech is the procreation of Ralph Lauren and the Canadian based Biometrics company OMsignal

Polo Tech is a sleek compression style shirt brandishing a larger than ever esteemed Polo logo. Built into the fabric of the shirt are gyroscope and accelerometer sensors that connect to an app on your smartphone via Bluetooth. The sensors will provide you with real-time metrics on your performance, including distance covered, heart rate, breathing rate and effort level.

So the Polo Tech Shirt is very much like a fitness band, apart from it’s a Polo shirt, so it looks a heck of a lot better! With wearable technology becoming rapidly more popular in the form of smart watches, smart glasses, fitness bands etc, this step taken by Ralph Lauren is sure to set the tone for smart clothing and embolden other luxury brands to enter the wearables realm.

The Polo Tech Shirt is still in the prototype stage and is not being worn by the players competing in the US Open, although it will be fashioned by ball girls and boys playing exhibition matches during the tournament. After the US Open it will be taken back to the factory where tweaks will be made, then hopefully the shirt will be on the shelves early in 2015.