Wearable Technology in Winter Sports: A Cross-Domain Synthesis and a Conceptual Framework for the Cold-Context Translational Gap

Winter-sport wearable technology spans motion and force sensing, physiological monitoring, thermal intervention, flexible bioelectronics, equipment-integrated systems, and safety technologies. This structured critical review synthesizes an evidence base of 80 unique scholarly records identified through a systematic Boolean search executed on 15 August 2026 in four standard academic databases (Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection, PubMed, and IEEE Xplore), which retrieved 1466 records (808 unique after cross-database deduplication), supplemented by backward/forward citation chasing for eligible records not indexed in these databases. The corpus comprises 32 direct winter-sport records, 15 cold-context translational records, 14 contextual validation records, and 19 secondary/background records. For empirical records containing sufficient information, validation maturity was additionally coded on a seven-stage ordinal scale; 54/80 records could be staged without inference, whereas 26/80 were retained as ‘not staged’. The corpus shows that translational maturity is strongly domain dependent. Motion and kinematic sensing frequently reaches real winter-sport training or field settings, whereas antifreezing hydrogels and flexible bioelectronics have advanced substantially in conductivity, adhesion, self-healing, conformability, and low-temperature operation but remain concentrated at material, integrated-device, and human-demonstration stages. The five recurring constraints—thermodynamic, interface, ecological, connectivity, and equity—are therefore reframed as non-equivalent, context-dependent dimensions rather than universal burdens. The revised architecture also distinguishes digitally mediated sense–decide–actuate loops from material-native stimulus–response and hybrid pathways, while continuous remote monitoring is treated as one option within an energy–communication trade-space. The resulting framework links evidence type, validation depth, system interface, and deployment context without equating commercial availability with scientific validation.