The new Skechers sneakers with a hidden AirTag compartment won’t work like you think it will, but it could get rid of your parental clinginess.

Great summary of how AirTags work, and how they’re not good for pinpoint accuracy (via Jake Peterson from Lifehacker):

Contrary to popular belief, AirTags are not homing beacons that can update their location 24/7. Alone, these tags have no way of updating their location. They lack a GPS chip, or any way to communicate with the internet themselves. Instead, they rely on other devices to update their location for them.

Any Apple device connected to Apple's Find My network can update the location of your AirTag when it comes within Bluetooth range of the tracker. The whole system is passive and anonymous, so no one, not even Apple, knows which devices update the location of your AirTag. But it works: If you leave an item with an AirTag on a bus, for example, anyone on the bus with an iPhone can, unbeknownst to them, refresh your AirTag's location.

The magic behind how AirTags work is also the reason why they're not reliable for live tracking. Without another internet-connected Find My device within Bluetooth range, your AirTag won't be able to update its location. If your kid isn't within Bluetooth range of another person with such a Find My device, for example, you won't see their latest location—just the last known location where they were within range of a Find My device.

But even when they are in range, AirTags tend to be pretty sporadic in how often they refresh their location. As Lifehacker deputy editor Joel Cunningham discovered, sometimes locations wouldn't update for 15 to 20 minutes at a time. Occasionally, the AirTag wouldn't update its location at all. So much for tracking.

I tried using an AirTag for tracking my son a couple of years ago (9 years old at the time) when he went on solo bike rides, but its performance was less than stellar to say the least exactly for the reasons stated above.

I was using it wrong.

Biking in the countryside didn’t bring enough Bluetooth traffic to get a reliable approximation of his location. A cheap iPhone SE 2nd gen is infinitely better and is our current solution.

I still think this idea has other benefits, especially for parents who are hesitant to let their kids be on their own and explore the world by themselves as they get older.

The AirTag (as poorly as it performed), removed a psychological barrier from us (mainly my wife), and made it ok to let our kids go out on their own and be kids. No direct supervision and an opportunity to experience life on their own.

Kudos for Skechers for trying. Who knows, maybe Skechers has some inside scoop on the next generation of AirTags having full GPS support?