Who didn’t wish to have a bit extra heat while bracing the arctic cold outdoors. Not so long ago many  folks in Europe and in US got a taste of the cold force of mother nature.

Milwaukee Electric Tool Corp., manufacturer and marketer of heavy-duty, portable electric power tools is not the typical brand we expect to embrace wearable technology but thinking about it more closely, tools-technology and work-wear go nicely hand in hand.

The M12™ Cordless Heated Jacket is the answer to all the cold days home improvement folks and professionals have been waiting for. The M12 is a multi layered soft shell jacket providing water and wind resistant.

Integrated are three carbon fiber heating zones, two on the front and one at the back giving extra heat when needed via three selectable heat settings.

The electrical power comes from Milwaukee’s range of portable power tools battery packs and the power tool charger. This makes the M12 a fully integrated product for the semi-professional home improver and professionals working outdoors on construction projects.

You might say working outdoors will heat you up and keep you warm anyhow but think again – there are times you need to wait or supervise others while chilly winds are blowing around you.

This surprisingly good looking work jacket comes also to an amazing low price starting at $119.- (excl. battery and charger)or $182.95 (incl. battery and charger)

Austrian Designer Wolfgang Langeder and the Fraunhofer IZM / Stretchable Circuits in Berlin, have joined forces to develop Smart Urban Wear with focus on an innovative display on clothing.

‘The utope project approaches a textile utopia: The exterior of clothing becomes a display. This creates the possibility to change its surface like a chameleon skin or to use it like a computer display.

The first model in the Smart Urban Wear collection is the ‘Cybernomade Suit‘, an intelligent business suit.

The integrated display interacts with a smart phone tucked away in a pocket inside the jacket and indicates an incoming call or SMS on the jacket outside.

Besides the sophisticated look this interactive style element which is building the bridge between the soft, digital world and the physical world, the indication of an income call or message does not require humble excuses when talking with someone and the buzzer goes on in our pocket.

Personally I prefer to see pleasant to look at light on my conversation partner coming to life telling me he/she will pick up the phone instead of trying to find lame excuses for putting our conversation on hold.

I am curiously looking forward to the expansion of the Smart Urban Wear collection from Wolfgang Langeder in cooperation with the wearable technology wizards at the Fraunhofer IZM and Stretchable Circuits.

We all know the iPhone with it’s application variety can control almost anything imaginable. So it was only a matter of time that creative minds made the link to clothing.

Artistic designer Alexander Reeder in collaboration with Yutaka Takahashi and Junpei Wada link up the iPhone with a jacket that can contain various modules such as an 8×8 LED matrix display on the back.

The iPhone loaded with an application can then turn the back of the jacket into your very personal message board to scroll your Twitter feeds, show your mood status or visualize the beat of your song you are listening.

Another module in the making is interesting for bikers, a flip of the wrist will illuminate the wrist area indicating your left or right turn. I could very well imagine some sort of breaking lights in the jacket as the iPhone with the integrated accelerometer can detect when you hit the breaks on the bike.

As far as I can see on Alexander’s Web site the iPhone controlled jackets will be produced and launched later this year, so this is not a design concept and looks like this is going to be commercially available in time for Christmas.

Watch the video below to get an idea how the ‘Vanilla Series’ of iPhone jackets will work.

This seems to be the first clothing item that does not control the iPhone like the iPod/i{hone enabled jackets we have seen in the past with textile keypads on the sleeve but these Vanilla Jackets are controlled by an iPhone.

I see this as another interesting step towards more interactive clothing.

[via: Fashioning Technology]

A few days ago I stumbled over the job opening at Adidas for a wearable electronic designer but it seems Adidas is making already first low-tech steps towards more interactive fashion enhancements.

Glow-in-the-dark printing on fabrics is not really a high tech matter but as far as I can judge this, such fashion experiments came only into fashion – so to speak – since wearable technologies in general pushes fashion technology into new territory.

Stella McCartney used glow-in-the-dark in an aesthetic pleasant way to design a range for Adidas. The Stella McCartney collection includes Ruched-shoulder jackets, drawstring shorts and lace-up running shoes.

Colors and pattern prints are nice and have been in use for many (hundred) years in fashion design as well as beads and other eye-catching elements attached or integrated into fabrics.

But all these elements and colors are static, once you choose the print and color it stays there for ever (as long as the season lasts).

Adding (re)active materials or technologies make the emotional color and pattern play more interesting, changing it’s appearance triggered by our surrounding environment, when light or temperature or humidity changes the appearance of our clothing will change in reaction of it.

Glow-in-the-dark printing is a first step into a more (re)active future of fashion design.

[Ecouterre via StyleGuru]

How technology can enhance fashion design has been nicely demonstrated by Tine Beez, a graduate of Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design with her ‘Fashion meets Technology‘ active wear collection unveiled last May.

The inspiration of her collection is drawn by the mountaineering legend George Mallory, using natural fiber combined with cutting edge wearable technologies to create  functional and visually appealing outdoor fashion for very chilly days.

While designing the ‘Fashion meets Technology’ Tine studied carefully the needs of mountaineers while in extreme cold environments which require thick layers of clothing but at the same time being able to move and act unobstructed.

Natural healing fibers such as Milk- Pearl and Aloe Vera help moisturize the skin and stimulate blood circulation in the outfit’s inner layers while Nano-technology is used to enhance wind protection and waterproofing in the outer layers without changing the fabric’s natural properties.

To protect against hitting rocks or other obstacles while in the rough outdoors, shock absorbent pads from d3o have been integrated into the garments to assist in safety and accident prevention.

Besides the comfortably considerations in the clothing design Tine did not forget to comfort the should of the wearer by adding the ConnectedWear system from Fibretronic to the outfit.

ConnectedWear is adding iPod control into clothing allowing to maneuver through the music collection while the iPod itself stays safe and warm deep inside the mountaineering clothing, away from the harsh environment of Mt. Everest.

[via: Dexigner]

The Winter Olympic are in full swing (although physically I am far away from Vancouver) I revisited the iPod enabled jacket market to check out what is available right now for people watching the winter games on the spot.

The first pleasant surprise is the prices of interactive, iPod ready jackets came down again this winter season which make them as affordable as any other jacket in the same category.

The next surprise, there are many different styles of interactive jackets from a wide range of brands, too many to beam up all of them. The following tip is based on my personal style judgement but a quick scan on the internet will give you a much wider choice of iPod ready jackets.

Tog24 has been having interactive jackets in their online store since the early days of wearable electronic and this seasons offerings look great, the women styles as well as mens styles.

The jackets are powered by the CONNECTEDwear modules from Fibretronic making it easy to pick up additional modules for other than iPod devices like Bluetooth cell-phones.

The women jackets can be found here and here, retailing for £99.95 ($158.-) each, mens styles can be found here and here with a price tag of £129.00 ($203.-) each.

Operating a touch screen during the cold, icy season either requires to have some control over them via the outer clothing or alternatively, you can get you hands on/into one of the touch screen enabled gloves. The third option is to get icy fingers each time you change a song or pick up a phone call. The choice is yours.

Despite the cold weather outside, the technology enhanced apparel market is really heating up this winter season. The North Face added to this growing market great looking Audio jackets for women and men.

Beautiful not only the style of the jackets but also the soft touch control on the sleeve in the shape of a diamond. The controls are CONNECTEDwear compatible which opens a wide range of functionality modules to connect to the iPod family or other MP3 player and Bluetooth devices.

Designed for athletes who need to stay connected, no matter where, these waterproof, breathable, fully seam sealed jackets keep skiers and boarders dry and warm – and in tune with todays digital lifestyle.

The women’s Femphonic Audio Jacket comes in the colors Black or Flamenco Blue (photo) and retails at $348.95 the same retail price as the men’s Hustle Audio Jacket available in the colors Black and Cedar Tan.

The Northface represents another top brand in the outdoor apparel market by offering the option to select jackets which literally weave our digital dependability into our clothing, making our clothing compatible with devices which have not existed a few short years ago.

Technology enhanced clothing is not something geeks design for geeks, technology enhanced clothing is designed to accommodate the needs of the digital age.

Spyder is one of the brands making use of the Skullcandy wearable electronic system we posted about a few days ago. The Spyder Destroyer Jacket is available in the colors black and red-white with a Skullcandy electronics compatible exterior.

Integrated into the jacket is a flexible keypad and the eTextile cable system which provides a connection between the soft keypad and a connector inside one of the pockets to hook up an iPod.

Spyder is no newcomer to the interactive clothing business, the most talked and written about product was without questions the limited edition jacket back in 2006, one of the first iPod compatible jackets with a price tag of $3000.- (including iPod).

Times have changed and with the arrival of wearable modular systems, the price of having a  touch pad in a jacket came down considerable so even Spyder is able to offer iPod compatible jackets for $499.- as seen here.

Yeah – still not in the low (price) range but hey – it’s a Spyder jacket after all and there is no price  difference in the Destroyer Jacket line between Skullcandy compatible exterior or plain old fashion exterior.

The last time I blogged about Columbia Sportswear‘s techno clothing collection I was ‘wondering’ what comes next after their launch of heated boots, heated jackets and the music super charged backpack.

Now we know – Columbia Sportswear added the Rockin Out jackets for men and women.

The Rockin Out jackets have of course the technology twist: they are compatible with the Skullcandy® wearable technology system we blogged about a few days ago. The flexible keypad in diamond shape was well as the textile cable to connect to the wearable audio system is fully integrated into the jackets and are washable.

If you decide it is time to activate your jacket with an audio feature or just to get the iPod controls on the jackets outside, you can order these upgrades by Skullcandy.

The jackets are made from Omni-Tech® fabric making them waterproof and breathable to prevent rain, snow and moisture from reaching the inside while allowing moisture inside the garment to escape and evaporate, providing a save place for your iPod and yourself while being in full control, at least of the iPod while venturing through the great outdoors.

The Rockin Out jacket retails for $199.99 and are available online via the links above in the colors Grey and Orange for men and Green (Kelly) and Pink for women.

Columbia Sportswear has put together for this winter season a nice lineup of technology enriched clothing, a collection where you can choose according your needs and likes.

Skullcandy, formed in 2003 with the goal of designing audio player accessories that fit into an active action sports lifestyle seems to me is up to (r)evolutionize the audio accessory business with their new range of wearable technology modules.

The AMP’D Music System includes a 2 watt amplifier, two wearable speaker modules, an iPod and a 3.5mm audio connection cable with a retail price of $79.98

The second system, retailing for $29.95 is a connection module between a jacket for example and an iPod.

The catch on this system: Skullcandy is working with apparel brands like Sessions, Columbia, Spyder to name a few which offer ‘Skullcandy enabled‘ clothing, having a soft keypad and textile wiring integrated in their clothing lines.

The consumer buys these jackets and if he/she likes to use it for iPod control or to spice up a jacket with an audio system, he/she goes to Skullcandy and buys whatever function is wanted …. just like buying a headphone.

Sure there are other modular systems available like CONNECTEDwear or PANiQ which potentially work in the same way: buy a jacket or bag with the respective technology brand inside and select functions/modules as you wish.

Skullcandy has the advantage of having an infrastructure in place that takes care of their core business – high quality audio accessory design and distribution of the technology part and the participating apparel companies do what they do best, creating great looking, high quality clothing.

Transforming a ‘normal’ jacket into technology enhanced clothing is done by the consumer and is as easy as to buy a pair of new headphones.

The good news on all these developments is: soon we will have clothing that has soft, textile keypads somewhere integrated with textile cables running to media pockets, ready to be connected to ‘something’. This feature will become a fixed part of clothing like zippers, buttons or similar clothing features which sometimes have function but sometimes are used for style reason only.

The challenge for companies offering wearable electronic systems will be to define and agree to a standardized connection between the technology ready clothing and the different functional modules. As (technology) history has shown  in the past, the highest level of (business) success is achieved when consumer are able to mix and match functions and brands.

‘Have you already activated your jacket?‘ will then become a common term when we talk about clothing.