Visa is introducing payment-connected winter gloves and two other wearables that will enable cashless payments at the upcoming Olympic Games in PyeongChang.
The company unveiled Wednesday its plans to offer Olympics attendees smart gloves that contain a dual interface chip with an antenna that will enable contactless payments throughout the venue, where Visa has installed more than 1,000 NFC-enabled point-of-sale terminals.
It will also offer four different commemorative Olympic lapel pins that enable payments and an array of thin, flexible adhesive micro tags that are embedded with NFC chips and antennas and can be attached to a variety of items, such as clothes and bags.
“These payment gloves provide a hassle-free way to pay, even when it’s cold,” Park Seung-hi, a South Korean speed skater who has won Olympic medals, said in a statement.
Submit Your Nominations For The SportTechie Awards!
These additions follow the introduction of the Visa Payment Ring at the Summer Olympics in Rio in 2016, the first time Visa debuted cashless payment options at the Games.
The wearables will be installed with a prepaid amount of money and will be available for purchase at Lotte Card customer centers in South Korea and online beginning Nov. 9. They can also be scooped up at vending machines peppered through the venues in PyeongChang.
Get The Latest Sports Tech News In Your Inbox!
Visa, which has been an Olympic sponsor for more than three decades, is facilitating and managing the entire payment system infrastructure and network throughout all venues at the Olympic Games.
“We are looking forward to transforming the payment experience for everyone who attends the upcoming Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang,” Iain Jamieson, Korea country manager at Visa, said in a statement.