A brake system including a brake pad shaped and located to frictionally engage a brake rotor and an actuator shaped and located to act upon the brake pad to cause the brake pad to frictionally engage the rotor. The system further includes a sensor material which varies in resistance when the actuator acts upon the brake pad, wherein the sensor material includes an electrically insulating material with electrically conductive particles distributed therein. The system further includes a controller operatively coupled to the sensor material to detect a change in resistance of the sensor material.