At first glance, the trousers look ordinary — until you see what’s inside.
The trousers feature a waistband that has an airbag and sensors built in — technology designed to protect the person wearing them from a fall.
“The basic premise is that in these trousers … have electronics that analyze movement in real time,” said Maxime Bolduc, co-founder and CEO of Azimut Medical.
“If you fall, we have a membrane that inflates, so that when you hit the ground, you have protection all around the pelvic area.”
The smart trousers were developed by Montreal startup Azimut Medical. But the idea didn’t start in a lab.
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“My grandmother fell and broke her hip at home. She stayed on the ground for five hours and it shocked us,” said Bolduc.
“She went through recovery, rehabilitation, and when she came back home, we realized she’s gonna fall again, that’s for sure, so we started looking for products that would protect her.”
That was back in 2019 while Bolduc was finishing his mechanical engineering degree.
In 2021, he started working on the technology, which is now being tested in clinical trials in Quebec and Ontario.
Medical experts say the potential impact could be significant.
In fact, Dr. Stéphane Lemire, a geriatrician, says the technology could be a game-changer — especially if it’s adopted in institutions like hospitals and long-term care homes.
“In Canada, falls are responsible for approximately $5 or $6 billion of health care expenditures,” said Lemire. “And mainly it’s because people injure themselves and need health care for that.”
The next step is for the company to raise more funds and bring the product to market later this year.
The hope is to eventually integrate the technology into different styles of clothing.
But for the man behind the idea, the bottom line is to help people, like his grandmother, who is now 101 years old.
“I actually tested a couple of different garments with her. And her feedback was instrumental. She was quite critical of the garment at first. And so we moved a lot of the iterations with her feedback and it made for a much better product,” said Bolduc.
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