Why do foreign cyclists start wearing shoes with NFC labels

Technical expert Simonelli suffered a serious accident during a motorcycle race more than a decade ago. At that time, he was taken to the nearest hospital and no one knew him, resulting in him being unconscious for two days without anyone being able to contact his family because he also did not carry his identity information with him.

Technical expert Simonelli suffered a serious accident during a motorcycle race more than a decade ago. At that time, he was taken to the nearest hospital and no one knew him, resulting in him being unconscious for two days without anyone being able to contact his family because he did not carry his identity information with him. This is an issue that Simonelli focused on during his rehabilitation period. Leveraging his knowledge in NFC technology, he decided to develop a solution based on this technology so that other motorcycle riders or athletes would not experience similar situations.

The first product developed by Simonelli was a bracelet with a built-in USB flash drive. However, in 2008, many emergency responders did not have computers on their ambulances to access the data at that time. Therefore, in 2015, Simonelli created ICE-Key and an application for Android devices, and subsequently collaborated with Avery Dennison to provide this technology in its Textrace NFC tag. NFC tags can store unique IDs related to identity and health information (such as name, emergency contact, or blood type) in the application.

Users can download the NFC Tag mobile application and enter the data of the unique ID they want to link to the shoe label. This can include their name, blood type, and emergency contact person, as well as photos and other health information such as food or drug allergies, previous surgeries, and vaccination. They can also set their own language, with seven languages to choose from. In emergency situations, these responders only need to take out their smartphones and click within a range of 1 to 4 centimeters from the shoes. Tags can be read at a speed of 424 kilobits per second.

Slovenian cyclist Tadej Poga , who played for the UAE team, wore these shoes for the first time at the Tour de France in July. In fact, many athletes cannot carry personal documents with them (including runners, swimmers, or cyclists). Although there are wearable recognition solutions, such as smartwatches or smartphones, Simonelli points out that they require a password and emergency personnel do not know how to crack it. Therefore, he believes that it is necessary for outdoor athletes to wear shoes with NFC labels.