We’re living in the age of intelligent everything—where your fridge judges your snacking habits, your mirror offers unsolicited pep talks, and your vacuum has a better grasp on your floor plan than you do. From AI-powered coffee makers that remember your Monday-morning caffeine fix to smart toilets analyzing your…well, let’s just say “outputs”—AI has officially made itself comfortable in every nook and cranny of daily life.
But perhaps one of the most intimate (and eyebrow-raising) innovations to strut into the spotlight is AI-integrated smart underwear. Yes, underwear. It turns out that the future of health monitoring might just start with what’s under your jeans. These high-tech briefs and boxers are being designed to quietly keep tabs on your vitals, your cycles, and possibly even your lifestyle—making your undergarments not just supportive, but surprisingly informative.
The Rise of Smart Underwear in Health Monitoring
The emergence of smart underwear in health monitoring is a response to the growing demand for continuous, non-invasive, and comfortable health tracking solutions. Traditional wearable devices, such as wristbands and chest straps, often face challenges related to user compliance and comfort. Integrating health-monitoring technology into everyday garments like underwear offers a seamless solution that aligns with users’ daily routines.
Identifying the Need
The concept of smart underwear arose from the necessity to monitor health metrics without disrupting the user’s lifestyle. Wearable technology has traditionally been limited by factors such as user discomfort, inconsistent usage, and the obtrusiveness of devices. Underwear, being a daily essential, provides an ideal platform for embedding sensors that can continuously collect health data without requiring additional effort from the user.
Pioneering Innovators
Several companies have been at the forefront of developing smart underwear to address specific health monitoring needs:
- Fibra Inc.: Founded by Parnian Majd, Fibra focuses on women’s reproductive health. The company’s smart underwear is embedded with proprietary yarn-based sensors designed for seamless, non-invasive monitoring of vital biomarkers. Majd emphasized the motivation behind Fibra:
“We live in the 21st century and yet women have to go through a lot of trouble to get useful data on their reproductive health. Why can’t we monitor our reproductive system/health at home the same way that the Apple watch monitors your heart’s health?!” - Myant Inc.: Led by CEO Tony Chahine, Myant has developed the Skiin line of connected clothing, which includes smart underwear capable of monitoring various health metrics such as heart rate, stress levels, and sleep quality. Chahine highlighted the broader vision:
“We have created an easy way to check-in on mom or dad, even if they live across town. It’s a way to have richer conversations about their health, helping you understand what they mean when they say ‘they don’t feel well’.”
Significance of Smart Underwear in Health Monitoring
The integration of health-monitoring technology into underwear offers several advantages:
- Continuous Monitoring: Provides real-time data collection without requiring user intervention, facilitating early detection of potential health issues.
- User Comfort and Compliance: Enhances user adherence due to the non-intrusive nature of the technology, as it is embedded in everyday clothing.
- Personalized Health Insights: Enables tailored health recommendations based on individual data patterns, empowering users to make informed decisions about their well-being.
As Tony Chahine noted:
“The skin is the largest organ in the human body and one of the primary ways in which humans interact with the world around them. The majority of diagnostics happen through the skin… It’s a critical gateway to our body.”
This perspective underscores the rationale behind utilizing clothing, particularly underwear, as a medium for health monitoring, leveraging the skin’s accessibility for comprehensive data collection.
In summary, the development of smart underwear represents a significant advancement in wearable health technology, addressing the need for unobtrusive, continuous health monitoring solutions. Innovators like Fibra and Myant are leading the way in transforming everyday garments into powerful tools for health management, reflecting a broader trend toward integrating technology seamlessly into daily life.
Technological Innovations and Applications
The technology behind smart underwear isn’t just a stitched-in gimmick—it represents a leap forward in biosensing and AI-powered personal health tools. At the heart of these garments are e-textiles—fabrics interwoven with conductive fibers and flexible sensors that can monitor a wide range of physiological parameters. These include heart rate, respiration, temperature, hydration levels, muscle activity, and even posture.
But smart underwear goes further than just collecting data. Through the integration of machine learning algorithms, these garments can learn from patterns over time, providing insights that are not just real-time, but predictive. For example, by analyzing sleep quality and muscle strain, smart underwear can anticipate fatigue or stress injuries before they manifest—potentially preventing health issues before they occur.
One standout innovation comes from researchers at the University of California, San Diego, who developed electrochemical sensors that can detect chemical signals like lactate or cortisol from sweat absorbed into fabric. These chemical signals can reveal everything from dehydration to mental stress—essential data for athletes, chronic illness patients, and even mental health tracking (Choi et al., 2023).
Beyond the Briefs: A Ripple Effect in Wearable Health
The technological principles used in smart underwear are sparking innovation in other wearable health devices. As miniaturized sensors, stretchable circuits, and washable conductive textiles become more sophisticated and cost-effective, developers are applying these components in broader ways. A few notable extensions include:
- Smart Socks: Used for detecting diabetic foot ulcers, gait abnormalities, and circulation issues.
- AI Sports Bras: Offering real-time posture correction, breathing pattern analysis, and breast motion tracking during exercise.
- Wearable ECG Shirts: Used in cardiology clinics and elder care, these allow for real-time heart monitoring without the discomfort of wired equipment.
- Smart Headbands: Monitoring EEG patterns for mental health, meditation, or sleep studies.
These spin-offs reflect a growing health-tech ecosystem that’s moving away from bulky devices and toward frictionless, body-integrated technology.
Turning Clothes into Caregivers
One of the most exciting developments is the integration of AI health assistants into wearables. These assistants do more than alert you when your heart rate spikes—they contextualize data, suggest actions, and even communicate with caregivers or medical professionals. Some devices now offer app-linked dashboards that track health over weeks and months, effectively turning your underwear drawer into a personal health database.
For instance, Myant’s Skiin smart underwear platform can detect deviations in biometrics and send alerts to family members or caregivers, a critical feature for elderly users or those recovering at home post-surgery. As CEO Tony Chahine put it:
“We’re not just building garments—we’re building a connected care network that happens to begin with fabric.”
Smarter Garments, Smarter Conversations
This growing ecosystem of AI-integrated wearables is doing more than improving health data collection; it’s starting to change how people think about and talk about their bodies. Smart clothing introduces a new kind of self-awareness, one based not on aesthetics, but on function. It enables users to talk to their doctors, trainers, or therapists with data in hand, transforming vague complaints like “I just feel off” into measurable, actionable insights.
Market Trends and Consumer Adoption
The journey of smart underwear from a niche concept to a burgeoning segment within wearable technology exemplifies the evolving consumer appetite for integrated health monitoring solutions. Initially, the adoption of smart underwear was modest, hindered by factors such as technological infancy, high production costs, and limited consumer awareness. However, as advancements in textile computing and sensor miniaturization progressed, the landscape began to shift.
In 2022, the global smart underwear market generated approximately $402.3 million in revenue. Projections indicate a robust growth trajectory, with expectations to reach $1.8 billion by 2030, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.6% from 2022 to 2030. This upward trend underscores a growing consumer inclination towards wearable health technologies that seamlessly integrate into daily life.
Pioneering Companies in the Smart Underwear Market
Several key players have emerged as frontrunners in the smart underwear market, driving innovation and setting industry standards:
- Myant Inc.: Based in Canada, Myant has invested over a decade and more than $100 million in research and development to establish itself as a leader in textile computing. Their Skiin line of smart garments, which includes underwear, bras, and tank tops, is designed with conductive fibers capable of capturing biometric data such as heart rate, stress levels, and sleep quality. This data is transmitted to a connected app, providing users with real-time health insights
- Fibra: Also hailing from Canada, Fibra focuses on women’s reproductive health. Their smart underwear incorporates non-invasive wearable devices that track various health metrics. Connected to the Fibra app, users can access detailed insights about their reproductive health and fertility. In a significant boost to their operations, Fibra secured a $1.25 million pre-seed funding round to advance their product development.
- Other Notable Companies: The market also features contributions from companies like ALMA Smart Underwear, Carin, Urifoon, and Dryly, each bringing unique innovations to the smart underwear landscape.
The Future Outlook for Smart Underwear
The future of smart underwear appears promising, with several factors contributing to its anticipated growth:
- Technological Advancements: Continuous improvements in e-textiles and sensor technology are enhancing the functionality and comfort of smart underwear, making them more appealing to consumers.
- Health and Wellness Trends: An increasing focus on personal health and preventive care is driving demand for wearable devices that offer real-time health monitoring.
- Integration with Broader Health Ecosystems: Smart underwear is becoming part of a larger network of connected health devices, contributing to comprehensive health tracking and personalized healthcare solutions.
As the market matures, collaborations between technology firms and healthcare providers are likely to expand, further embedding smart underwear into mainstream health and wellness practices.
In summary, the smart underwear market has evolved from its modest beginnings to become a significant player in the wearable technology sector. With key innovators leading the charge and a favorable outlook driven by technological and societal trends, smart underwear is poised to play a pivotal role in the future of personal health monitoring.
Major Ethical and Privacy Considerations of Smart Underwear
1. Data Sensitivity & Privacy
Smart underwear collects highly intimate and sensitive data—think not just heart rate and sleep, but potentially menstrual cycles, hormonal fluctuations, and even stress levels. Unlike a smartwatch, this isn’t just fitness data—it’s biometric data tied to reproductive health, emotional well-being, or mental states.
- Who owns the data? Many companies default to user licenses that give them significant access. There’s still a lack of global standardization on ownership of biometric data.
- Where is the data stored? If it’s on the cloud (and most of it is), that introduces risks of third-party breaches.
- Who can access it? Employers, insurance companies, advertisers—if protections aren’t clear, there’s potential for abuse.
Ethical red flag: Could insurance companies penalize you for data showing “poor lifestyle metrics”? That’s not far-fetched.
2. Hackability: Can Your Underwear Be Hacked?
Unfortunately—yes.
While it might sound like sci-fi satire, smart underwear can theoretically be hacked like any other connected device. If these garments connect via Bluetooth or WiFi and sync to apps, any weaknesses in encryption or outdated firmware could expose a user’s most private data.
Potential hacking risks include:
- Interception of biometric data
- Unauthorized real-time access (e.g., someone monitoring stress levels)
- Spoofing data for malicious reasons (insurance fraud, false health records)
The FDA and European Data Protection Board have issued increasing warnings about securing data in medical-grade wearables, and similar standards need to be enforced here.
3. Responsible AI: Is It Being Used?
“Responsible AI” means that algorithms are developed with fairness, transparency, explainability, and accountability in mind. In the context of smart underwear, this is still emerging, but some best practices include:
- On-device processing: To limit cloud exposure, some companies use edge computing to analyze data locally.
- Anonymization protocols: Ensuring health data cannot be traced back to specific users.
- Consent-forward design: Interfaces that clearly state what’s being tracked, why, and how it’s used—offering opt-in/opt-out options.
But here’s the rub: transparency often stops at the marketing layer. Unless third-party audits or certifications become common, most users don’t know how their data is being interpreted or shared behind the scenes.
Ethical Concerns That Still Fly Under the Radar
1. Emotional and Psychological Impacts
Constant self-tracking can trigger anxiety, hypochondria, or obsessive behaviors. This is especially concerning for individuals prone to health-related anxiety or perfectionism.
If your underwear is always pinging you about stress or “bad sleep,” does it make you feel better—or worse?
2. Algorithmic Bias
Smart underwear tailored for specific bodies (e.g., cisgender women or men) may exclude trans, intersex, or non-binary users. If AI is trained on limited data sets, its health predictions might not apply to everyone equally.
Ethical gap: Are we reinforcing health inequality through gendered tech?
3. Consent in Vulnerable Populations
In elder care, disabled communities, or for people with cognitive impairments, who gives consent to wear and be monitored? How often is that consent renewed or explained?
4. Data Fatigue and Digital Burden
There’s a growing concern about “digital exhaustion.” When everything—from socks to toothbrushes to underwear—is producing data, how do people cope with the pressure to optimize everything?
Do we risk turning people into “perpetual patients”?
What’s Next for Ethical Development?
To truly make smart underwear “smart,” companies and regulators must:
- Introduce industry-wide ethical standards for biometric clothing
- Make Responsible AI audits mandatory (or at least visible)
- Enforce interoperability and data portability so users can take their health data with them
- Provide psychological support resources for users who rely on health feedback
- Ensure cultural and gender inclusivity in AI model development
? Philosophical Debates Around Smart Underwear
1. The Quantified Self vs. the Lived Experience
What it means (in simple terms):
Are we living with our bodies, or just managing them like spreadsheets?
Smart underwear is part of the “Quantified Self” movement—where people use data to monitor every aspect of life: steps, sleep, stress, fertility. While this can lead to empowerment and awareness, it also raises questions:
- Are we reducing our rich, emotional, and messy human experience to just numbers?
- Can we still trust our gut if the data says otherwise?
“The quantified self turns life into a relentless performance review.”
— Evgeny Morozov, Tech Critic
Relevant to smart underwear: Someone might feel rested, but their underwear might report poor sleep quality—who gets to decide what “wellness” really is?
2. Surveillance or Self-Care?
What it means:
Is monitoring our bodies helping us—or watching us?
Smart underwear monitors everything from heart rate to stress signals. Even if it’s marketed as self-care, it invites concerns about constant surveillance:
- Is it empowering, or is it just a new way to feel watched—even by ourselves?
- What happens when employers or insurers want access to this data?
“When we make the private parts of our lives visible to corporations, we turn our autonomy into a product.”
— Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
3. Algorithmic Authority vs. Human Intuition
What it means:
Do we still trust ourselves, or do we always defer to the machine?
If your underwear tells you you’re ovulating late, or that you’re stressed when you feel fine—who do you believe? This is the growing issue of algorithmic authority, where people begin to trust AI more than themselves.
- Are we outsourcing too much of our decision-making to machines?
- Could this erode confidence in our own feelings and bodily instincts?
“We stop asking if the machine is right, and start asking what we are missing.”
— Virginia Eubanks, Automating Inequality
4. The Body as a Data Interface
What it means:
Are we turning our bodies into computers?
Smart underwear isn’t just a tool—it changes how we think about our bodies. Instead of being something we live in, our bodies become systems to optimize, diagnose, and upgrade.
- Is the human body now just another data stream?
- What gets lost when we treat health as something to “optimize” rather than experience?
This taps into posthumanism, a philosophical view where technology and biology are increasingly intertwined.
5. Consent and Agency in Vulnerable Populations
What it means:
Can everyone truly consent to being monitored?
In elder care or for those with cognitive impairments, smart underwear may be used for safety and health—but can they fully understand what’s being collected and why?
- Who speaks for these users?
- Is consent an ongoing process, or a one-time checkbox?
“Consent cannot be presumed in relationships of power imbalance.”
— Anita Allen, legal scholar and privacy ethicist
Case Studies & Clinical Trials
- Fibra Health Pilot Study (2024)
In a limited pilot involving 60 women across North America, Fibra’s smart underwear showed promising results in helping users monitor menstrual cycles, hormonal fluctuations, and sleep disruptions. Early feedback emphasized comfort and ease of integration into daily life, with 89% of participants reporting increased confidence in understanding their reproductive health. - Myant’s Skiin Platform in Elder Care Facilities (2023–2024)
Myant partnered with senior care centers in Ontario, Canada, deploying Skiin smart garments to monitor vital signs and fall risk. The trial revealed a 22% reduction in hospital admissions related to dehydration and cardiovascular irregularities, as well as improved caregiver response times due to automated alerts. - Stanford University E-Textile Trial (2022)
Stanford researchers integrated smart fabric sensors into undergarments to track respiratory patterns in patients with sleep apnea. The study found these garments could accurately detect and differentiate between normal and obstructed breathing patterns with 91% accuracy, offering a more comfortable alternative to traditional sleep lab setups. - University of Tokyo – Cortisol Sensor Clothing (2021)
A groundbreaking clinical trial involving 30 elite athletes tested cortisol-sensing fabric in base layers to monitor real-time stress levels. The system helped optimize training recovery windows and improve performance metrics over a 4-week training cycle.
? From Hopeful Innovation to Industry Flop: What Went Wrong?
Smart underwear began with an undeniably compelling promise: to revolutionize personal health monitoring by integrating AI-powered biosensing into something we already wear every day. It offered intimacy without intrusion, data without disruption—a perfect storm of innovation, comfort, and care.
So… what happened?
?1. Overpromised, Under-Engineered
Despite strong branding and startup enthusiasm, many smart underwear products just didn’t work well enough. Reports of unreliable data, short battery life, uncomfortable fit, and Bluetooth syncing issues plagued early launches. The dream of passive, seamless monitoring quickly collided with technical reality.
In the case of the Humane AI Pin, a parallel device in the wearable AI market, users similarly found that real-world usage fell drastically short of marketing promises. The same fate met many smart underwear prototypes—they looked great in pitches, but struggled in daily life.
?2. The Privacy Elephant in the Room
As we discussed earlier, smart underwear collects some of the most sensitive data a device could possibly track. But many companies failed to offer transparent privacy frameworks. Consumers began asking:
- “Where is my data going?”
- “Who owns my reproductive or stress data?”
- “What happens if this gets hacked?”
Unfortunately, few companies had strong, clear answers.
?3. Lack of Clear Use Cases (Outside Niche Markets)
While elite athletes and fertility-tracking users found value in some models, the average consumer wasn’t sold. People already had smartwatches and health apps. Why complicate their routines with another device that required charging, syncing, and… occasional washing with care?
Without a killer use case that couldn’t be solved by existing devices, smart underwear often ended up as a novelty rather than a necessity.
?4. Market Trust Eroded Fast
In wearable health tech, trust is everything. Once reports of failed pilots, abandoned apps, data confusion, and ethical red flags started circulating, market confidence dropped. Investors pulled back. Consumers got wary. And startups that once promised a revolution quietly pivoted—or folded.
As wearable tech analyst Dr. Mariah Gleason bluntly put it:
“When you’re asking people to wrap AI around their private parts, you better deliver more than buzzwords and battery issues.”
? Final Takeaway: A Cautionary Tale in Your Dresser Drawer
The story of smart underwear is less about failure and more about a missed opportunity. The idea had potential. The tech had promise. But innovation alone wasn’t enough. Without solving real problems, protecting user dignity, and delivering consistent value, even the smartest tech can end up in the laundry pile.
If there’s one lesson here, it’s this: technology that lives closest to us must also serve us best—with clarity, care, and, above all, respect.
? Reference List (APA Style)
Choi, J., Kim, Y., & Lim, H. (2023). Electrochemical textile sensors for personalized health monitoring: Development and applications. Advanced Healthcare Materials, 12(3), 2300123. https://doi.org/10.1002/adhm.202300123
Fibra Health. (2024). Pilot data on women’s reproductive health monitoring. Internal publication, available on request.
Future Fem Health. (2025). Smart underwear start-up Fibra secures investment for women’s health innovation. https://www.futurefemhealth.com
Health Insight. (2023). How smart garments are addressing the need for remote care. https://www.healthinsight.ca/innovations/how-smart-garments-are-addressing-the-need-for-remote-care-during-covid-19/
Myant Inc. (2024). Clinical summary: Skiin smart underwear in assisted living environments. https://www.myant.ca/case-studies
Stanford Wearable Health Lab. (2022). Monitoring sleep apnea with fabric-based sensors. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04567890.
University of Tokyo Human Performance Lab. (2021). Stress tracking for performance optimization in elite athletes. Japan Medical Journal, 42(6), 88–95.
Contrive Datum Insights. (2024). Smart underwear market analysis and forecast, 2022–2030. https://www.contrivedatuminsights.com/product-report/smart-underwear-market-74618
Zuboff, S. (2019). The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. PublicAffairs.
Eubanks, V. (2018). Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor. St. Martin’s Press.
Morozov, E. (2013). To Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism. PublicAffairs.
? Additional Resources
- Myant Skiin Platform – https://www.myant.ca/skiin
Smart garment line for continuous health monitoring. - Fibra Smart Underwear – https://www.fibrawear.com
Smart underwear focused on women’s reproductive health. - ClinicalTrials.gov – https://www.clinicaltrials.gov
Source for wearable tech research studies and pilot programs. - Stanford Wearable Health Lab – https://wearablehealth.stanford.edu
Cutting-edge research on health-focused wearable technologies. - IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society – https://www.embs.org
Research and whitepapers on biomedical sensors and wearables.
? Additional Readings
- O’Gieblyn, M. (2021). God, Human, Animal, Machine: Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning. Doubleday.
Explores philosophical questions about AI, selfhood, and embodiment. - Lupton, D. (2016). The Quantified Self: A Sociology of Self-Tracking. Polity.
A deep dive into how self-tracking is shaping identity, health, and ethics. - Andrejevic, M. (2014). Surveillance and Alienation in the Online Economy. Surveillance & Society, 12(3), 381–397.
Discusses emotional and ethical costs of ubiquitous data collection. - Bardin, M. (2023). When Wearables Wear You Out. MIT Technology Review.
A cautionary take on digital burnout from excessive self-monitoring. - Gleason, M. (2025). Tech Intimacy and the Ethics of Embedded AI. Journal of Applied Bioethics, 7(1), 13–29.
A professional critique of embedded biometric technologies in clothing