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Innovation

The $200 T-shirt that will fix your bad posture

A clothing innovation that doesn't surround your body with sensors and LEDs.
Written by Tyler Falk, Contributor
 
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There are numerous ways the fashion industry is trying to make your clothes smarter. There's this shirt that weaves fabric with micro-sensors to track your body's physiological signs, like heart rate and body heat, and warn you of an oncoming heart attack; a jacket with LED lights to help you navigate on foot; or this sweater that lights up to indicate your mood.

But a new T-shirt aims to fix a problem without surrounding your body in sensors and LEDs.

As workers increasingly do work at a desk for hours at a time, it's easy to forget about posture. But over time, ignoring how you sit can impact you psychologically, lead to back pain, and cost employers billions of dollars in lost productivity. And while you can take a class, do exercises, or buy any one of the numerous devices designed to improve your posture, one company wants to make better posture as easy as putting on a shirt. 

UpCouture, a fashion design company from Paris, has developed its organic cotton UP T-shirt that incorporates elastic bands -- with no rigid or semi-rigid parts -- to gently remind you to stop slouching during the day. 

The design uses an eight shape for the elastic bands that moves through your upper back and around each arm. When you start slouching or your shoulders leave their straight alignment, you will feel gentle pressure to put your body back into its correct posture. 

"The goal of the Up T-shirt is not to maintain the back firmly, as a rigid maintenance would weaken the muscles of the back, but to press in the right direction as soon as the shoulders leave their ideal alignment," according to the company's website.

At around $200, the shirt isn't cheap, but over time that could pay off if it prevents you from needing back surgery.

Photo: UpCouture/Facebook


This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com

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