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How An Apple Sports iWatch Could Be A Complete Game Changer

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Since the dawn of professional sports, athletes have pitched products. Whether it was coffee makers, or shaving cream, athletes at the highest levels have held sway with consumers.

But it was likely former NBA All-Star Chuck Taylor that moved true athletic products into the consumer mainstream. Now synonymous with the Converse “Chuck Taylor All-Star” athletic shoe, it was Taylor that helped redesign it for basketball, and with it, not only a sportswear revolution was launched, but a style that has transcended sports.

Whether it was the “Bo Knows” campaign or “It’s Gotta Be the Shoes”, Nike tapped into how important sports icons can sell not only products for athletes to use, but consumers using athletic footwear as casual fashion. When Nike and Michael Jordan launched the Jordan brand in 1985, it ushered in a crossover of not only athletics, but a style that reached into nearly every facet of fashion.

With not only Nike but other sportswear manufacturers tapping into this marketing, projections are that the global sportswear industry could hit $180 billion by 2018.

So, it may come as no surprise that rumors of an impending iWatch release from Apple could come in not one, but potentially several models, one of them being fitness related. That gained increased traction as 9to5Mac ran a story showing what appears to be NBA star Kobe Bryant wearing a test version. According to the report, a source indicates “that Apple has invited athletes from the MLB, NHL, and NBA to its Cupertino-based campus on multiple occasions over the past several weeks to brief the players on the upcoming wearable device and provide an opportunity for testing to be conducted in professional conditioning environments.”

Here on Forbes, we talked about how iOS8 and the iPhone 6 could revolutionize sports with HealthApp, a platform within the upcoming Apple operating system for mobile that will allow interaction with external hardware products aimed at health and wellness.

Upon further review, an iWatch makes perfect sense when tied to an iPhone. As the iPhone 6 is almost assuredly going to be larger in size, it becomes more cumbersome attached to your arm. The iWatch for fitness makes perfect sense, not only for ease of its display, but if rumors are true and there are aspects like sensors to gauge heart rate and sweat, it acts as the conduit to HealthApp’s software.

But beyond the true functional aspects of an iWatch for fitness is this: athletic wear is fashion. While headphones are not used in athletics, they have become a symbol of athletes tuning out the world around them to get game ready. Maybe there was truly an overall plan for Apple to become athlete endorsed heavy with the $3 billion purchase of Dre Beats. Apple has always tied themselves to iconic figures (remember the “Think Different” campaign?) and with Apple’s deep pockets, the notion of all-star athletes promoting an iWatch seems well within the realm of possibility, especially with the Kobe Bryant rumors.

So while speculation mounts as to when a Apple might be releasing the iWatch, it seems that when the time arrives, a sports and fitness version could likely be in the mix. Given that Apple is seen as an innovator and fashion heavy, the iWatch could be a game changer. They won’t be first out of the gate with a watch tied to smartphone technology, but they seem to be waiting to get it right on several fronts. In that, the iWatch should be seen as game changer, when or if it finally hits the market.

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