Apparel Online India Magazine November 1st Issue 2018 | Page 10

WORLD WRAP
From wearable tech to smart clothing –
How far have we reached?
W
earable technology gave
consumers Nike’s popular
HyperAdapt shoes, and Under
Armour brought to the market
shoes that can track a runner’s data
through GPS. Meanwhile, the entire
industry has gone gaga over the
smart watch by Apple, and activity
trackers like Fitbit. But today, smart
wearables are no more limited to
a small touch point at the wrist, as
smart clothing is now different with
longer ranges and more accuracy.
Smart clothing, also known as
e-textiles, is more commonly identified
as wearables which are integrated
with sensors and digital components
in them. Initially introduced as
fitness trackers and smart watches,
the market of wearable technology
has now grown into clothing, which
can monitor the wearer’s physical
condition in a given environment.
Combined with machine learning and
big data analysis, the technology can
further provide consumers more data
about their lifestyles and their body.
Proving to be an extremely beneficial
application for sports and leisure,
healthcare and military industry,
even though the wearable market is
recorded to be a US $ 28 billion per
year industry, smart clothing still
represents a fraction of that market.
According to a research report by
Research Nester, a strategic market
research and consulting service,
“Global smart clothing market is
anticipated to witness robust growth,
expected to garner US $ 5.2 billion by
the end of 2024.”
With human-computer interaction
becoming the fundamental key to a
variety of innovations that are coming
up in smart dress – brands across the
globe are experimenting with clothing
categories such as smart t-shirts,
smart pants, smart jackets, smart
undergarments and smart socks.
These clothes can not only cool down
“Brands across
the globe are
experimenting
with clothing
categories such
as smart t-shirts,
smart pants, smart
jackets, smart
undergarments
and smart socks.
Moving beyond
aesthetics in
design, they
are also made
of fabrics and
fibres which can
regulate body
temperature, and
can even release
medications
into the skin.”
or heat up, but can also change colour
and even resize themselves.
One of the most well-received
examples of the same this year was
the ‘self-heating jacket’ by Ralph
Lauren, sported by team USA during
the Winter Olympics 2018 held
through the chilly winters of South
Korea. Made of flexible carbon and
silver ink printed directly onto the
fabric, according to Ralph Lauren,
“the ink is conductive, and connects to
a battery pack that can be set to high,
low, or off. At a full charge, it provides
five hours of heat on the high setting,
and 11 hours on the low.”
Another product that rather fetched
mixed reviews after its launch in
2017 was the much-awaited smart
jacket called Commuter X, launched
in collaboration between Alphabet’s
Google and Levi Strauss. Conceived as
a denim jacket that lets the user control
a phone through the use of gestures
alone – the jacket connected through
Google’s conductive Jacquard Thread,
which is woven into the sleeve, and the
Jacquard snap tag, which syncs to a
smartphone via Bluetooth. The jacket
was sold at a price of US $ 350 and
was designed for a bike commuter who
could use gestures to control the phone
while biking, instead of pulling it out of
the pocket every time.
Moving beyond aesthetics in design,
these smart clothes are also made of
fabrics and fibres which can regulate
body temperature, and can even
release medications into the skin.
American brand, Under Armour sells
‘athletic recovery sleepwear’ which
are pajamas that beam infrared
radiation onto the wearer’s body to
boost recovery.
Self-heating jacket by Ralph Lauren
Colour changing dress by designer Julianna Bass at the
New York Fashion Week
10 Apparel Online India |NOVEMBER 1-15, 2018 | www.apparelresources.com
In early 2018, DuPont Advanced
Materials (DuPont) launched DuPont™
Intexar™ – a powered smart clothing
technology for on-body heating. The
company describes Intexar™ Heat as
a thin lightweight and durable heating
solution for outdoor clothing that
is designed to be easily integrated