The Brief

Australian Rules Football is a national obsession. As a result, fans already get great coverage of football games on free-to-air TV. We set out to convince footy them that subscribing to pay TV would get them closer to their team by creating an experience that justified the price. The budget allowed for us to discount Foxtel’s subscription by AUD $160 with an offer to club members. Instead we chose to create a product that added value to their fan experience in a way free to air couldn’t. Alert Shirt is a world first in wearable technology that literally connects fans to the game, allowing them to feel what the players feel live as it happens. The project involved collaboration of multiple stakeholders from various disciplines, including fashion, technology, advertising and manufacturing. A key limitation was time, with only 12 weeks available to move from initial concept to mass production and product launch. The project came with high risk, involving new, untested hardware from overseas that had to be soldered and assembled onshore, plus meet stringent Australian legislation. The Alert Shirt is now in public release with 4,000 manufactured to connect new subscribers and existing valued customers to their teams.

Alert Shirt has changed the rules of television broadcast, turning professional sport from something you watch to something you’re physically involved in. Beyond the emotional, fans can now connect to the physical sensations of their team. These include: a thumping heart whenever the game is on the line, the shock of a big hit when players collide, the sinking feeling of every costly mistake, lungs burning every time your team puts in a hard effort, and a rush of blood when your team is on the up. The technology to deliver this experience comprises four main components: a live data stream; a mobile App; an electronics unit inside the shirt; and a series of haptic feedback motors. The arrangement of these components together to create a physical experience that simulates live sport is a world-first innovation. Alert Shirt uses Champion Data, the official statistics of the Australian Football League. Our custom built mobile App pulls specific data streams in real time as they are triggered by predefined game events. For example, an “impact” might be triggered by a tackle, contested mark or smother. This event gets relayed via Bluetooth to an RF Arduino chip inside the electronics unit of the shirt. Here it is converted to a unique electronic signal and transmitted to the skin as touch through a series of haptic feedback motors. The electronics unit is housed in a silicon mould to optimise vibrations and increase the product’s water resistance. Through the App, wearers can adjust their Alert Intensity, view a real time breakdown of sensations, and share their Alert Score with friends. The project was a collaboration between the Agency, Wearable Experiments and Foxtel. An integrated advertising campaign was created to launch the product, comprising DM, online videos, street posters, social media, a dedicated microsite and PR.

4000 shirts have been manufactured, with a focus on offering the product first to new subscription club members before making them available to the wider football public. We are guided by the idea that technology is at its most powerful when it disappears. This means the success of the Alert Shirt lies in it amplifying natural moments within the game, not distracting from them, so that it becomes a seamless part of the viewing experience. By working with players to understand how the body feels during competition, we have attempted to create a sensory language that matches the physical reality. The more sophisticated this language becomes, the better the experience will be. Additionally, we are interested in new technologies that allow electronics to be woven more intricately through a garment so that sensations can be felt across a wider area. Future development will also focus on allowing fans to feel what individual players feel as well as expanding the technology to other popular contact sports. We feel Alert Shirt is an exciting innovation that takes fan engagement to a whole new level and paves the way for future products. Judging by the global media response, other people agree.