The Silver Institute reported that silver’s role in the wearable technology space is growing. In “innovative athletic clothing,” the white metal is used as a conduit to transmit “sought-after biometric data … to a sensor that displays the data.”

As quoted in the market news:

The fashionable Polo Tech Shirt, introduced by Ralph Lauren at the just-completed 2014 U.S. Open Tennis Championship in New York City, and worn in its public debut by the ball boys and girls, has bio-sensing silver fibers woven directly into the core fabric of the nylon shirt. The high conductivity of silver, intertwined with the fiber of the form-fitting shirt, is a key to the technology that tracks and transmits the wearer’s heart rate, stress level, distance and breathing data in real time and streams the biometric data directly to a smart phone or other device. The Polo Tech Shirt is a forerunner of a line of athletic shirts and tech-enhanced dress shirts that the company said will be available from Ralph Lauren next year.

Michael DiRienzo, The Silver Institute’s executive director, commented:

It’s yet another example of silver’s versatility. Silver is the crucial component in so many of today’s technologies — from computers and smart phones to medical applications, solar energy, and automobiles, to name a few. Now it’s at the leading edge of wearable technology.

Click here to read the full report from The Silver Institute.
Click here to read more about silver’s new technological applications.