Archive for the 'News' Category

A recent interview given by Rod Tanks, managing director of Smart Fabrics highlights the difficulties Wearable Electronic is facing but also indicates that Wearable Electronic is ready to take off.

This interview is full of very interesting observations on Wearable Electronic. Coming from a businessman Like Rod Tanks who’s company is one of the first 100% dedicated companies for Wearable Electronic products since 2003, counts even more.

An interesting analogy Rod Tank makes is: “The market in general will take off,” he says. “Cast your mind back to the first mobile phones, which were like carrying bricks around, and there were probably only about half a dozen streets in Sydney where they could work.”

I can confirm that not only in Sydney but many parts of major cities around the world where without cell phone reception just 10 years back.

As soon as consumers saw the added value of cell phones to their life this business exploded and billions have been spend to make cell phones ubiquitous as they are today. That all happened in just little more than 10 years.

Tanks sees also the difficulty Wearable Electronic faces at this moment: converging two very different industries which is holding back the faster introduction of Wearable Electronic: “The textile and apparel sector, which is very old and very well-established, and the other is the technology sector, which is very young and accelerating at an incredible pace.”

“Wearable technology requires the convergence of these two sectors and the channels they use. The difficulty is the mismatch between the distribution channels, the margins and pricing strategies of the two.”

“Take the textile and apparel sector for example. They play with margins generally in the 80 to 100 per cent mark-up range, even 200 per cent, at times. In the electronics industry, on the other hand, if someone can scoop up 12-15 per cent margins they start to think about retiring on the profits and it is all happy days.”

This is a very interesting view and might explain to a certain extend the limited availability of Wearable Electronic products. Sure, it does not explain everything as the technology itself does not offer a wide range of options at this moment either.

But companies like Smart Fabrics with people like Rod Tanks on the top give high hopes that anytime soon we, the consumer will see more Interactive Fashion in the stores.

Smart Fabrics is planning to expand in 2008 their operation across Asia to cater for the different needs in this region, adding services for Smart Fabric integration by other companies and expanding their own design and development of consumer products which are promoted under the G-Tech brand.

Read the full interview by Australia IT

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2008 is getting a hot year for Wearable Electronics, not only because Solar bags are a hot trend, not only because we have predicted this in our 2008 New Years forecast and the many other recent announcements made in the first few weeks of 2008 but because todays news might be dynamite with the potential to change the Wearable Electronic world - big time.

According an early heads-up (thanks J & J) we learned that QIO Systems, the wearable electronics spin-out of Eleksen, has agreed to a joint sales and marketing agreement with Cotswold Industries. Cotswold will resell QIO’s full line of accessory electronics designed for iPod and Bluetooth devices and Eleksen’s ElekTex® touch pads directly to apparel customers worldwide.

The reason for my excitement: Cotswold brings a truly global capability to the wearable electronic market. With a global logistics team already focused on providing millions of items each year to some of the globe’s top brands like Levi Strauss, The Gap, VF Corporation, Abercrombie & Fitch and others, Cotswold has the power, resources and a proven reputation to deliver with a world class customer service.

‘All of our customers are interested in this space …’ remarked James McKinnon, CEO of Cotswold Industries, ‘We’re so excited to be the organization to take QIO’s solutions to the mass market. Our goal is to embed an ElekTex touch pad in every outerwear garment within the next 10 years.’

I think the 10 year time frame from James McKinnon is on a very conservative side considering the competence of QIO’s Wearable Technology and the 50 years of experience in the garment business from Cotswold.

This mix of competences is dynamite and if it ignites we all know what’s happening: an explosion of the Wearable Electronic market

For the full press release please visit our main site.

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A few month ago the future of Eleksen and with it its ElekTex textile sensor technology that has made a huge impact in the Interactive apparel business in 2006/2007 was very uncertain to say the least.

The first re-emergence of Eleksen and its technology was in form of an acquisition of its assets and business by Peratch. The latest development in the Eleksen story seems to bring the know-how and competence of Eleksen and ElekTex back and stronger than ever.

The newly formed company QIO Systems™ gained in a deal with Peratech the worldwide exclusive license to the intellectual property and design rights for the electronics and textile touchpads of Eleksen and for the manufacture and sale of ElekTex textile touchpads for use in both consumer and commercial applications. In exchange, Peratech will take an equity shareholding in QIO Systems

QIO Systems will also acquire the rights to Eleksen’s eSystem merchandising programs and will be launching eSystem electronics at retail in time for the Back-to-School ’08 and Fall/Winter’08 fashion seasons. QIO Systems will be launching complete iPod control solutions and iPod-Bluetooth solutions in time to support outstanding customer demand. The company plans to bring a comprehensive range of eSystem electronics for sale at retail by the end of Q1 2009.

“This deal sets QIO Systems on the path to success. We’re committed to continuing Eleksen’s tradition of exceptional customer support and innovation in wearable electronics solutions,” remarked John Collins, President and CEO of QIO Systems, “It’s exhilarating to be back with the technology, relationships and customers we know so well.

The team at QIO Systems is being led by John Collins, CEO of QIO Systems and former VP of Marketing and Business Development at Eleksen, and Vassilis Seferidis, CTO of QIO Systems and former VP Product Management. John and Vassilis were responsible for the initial development of Eleksen’s wearable electronics product lines and the innovation which drove Eleksen to the top of the wearable electronics market. They are being joined at QIO System by several key Eleksen team members.

This arrangement is excellent news for the continuation and development of Interactive Fashion on a larger, industrial scale. We wish the new team lot of success and looking forward to write about many new and exiting Wearable Electronic products in the near future. That’s what we love and that’s what we are here for

For more infos please check out the full report on our main portal.

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Top rapper Kanye West collected four Grammy wins Sunday night during the Grammy Awards in LA.

The most striking (for our blog) is the stage outfit Kanye was sporting, a jacket with animated light effects on each side of the front.

I do love Kanye’s music and I do love the fact that Wearable Electronic is taking the stage again after the performance of OK Go last November.

OK Go’s interactive fashion designer was Moritz Waldemeyer but I couldn’t find out (yet) where Kanye West is ordering his stage outfit.

Guessing a bit and looking at the photos and the video (see below) as well as some hints mentioned on MTV, those displays are partly based on EL-wires (the horizontal lines) and on LED matrices that flash in the rhythm to a synthesizer.

Wearing a jacket with flashing LED lights and light-up shades, Kanye electrified ( literally) the show with a flashing post-apocalyptic take on “Stronger”. A perfect match of acoustical and visual effects.

The YouTube video below show Kanye and the illuminated jacket in action during the Grammy awards:

For Kanye West fans among our readers: West’s album snagged an award for best rap album and picking up wins for best solo performance, best rap song and best rap performance by a duo or group for his collaboration with Common.

Kanye loves glowing stuff as he writes on his blog ‘I’m posting anything that glows’ and he for sure does love his cool jacket as he was wearing it fully animated while picking up the prize for Best Rap Album.

Once again, Wearable Electronic takes the center stage.

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After the transfer of Eleksen to Peratech, another transfer in the Wearable Electronic space took place to strengthen the design and manufacturing base of interactive fashion: WEEL Technologies has successfully completed a management buy-out of the Wearable Electronics company FITRIGHT Industrial which has designed and manufactured Wearable Electronic components into Apparel, Bag and Accessory products for a number of leading brands in outdoor and sports bags and apparel.

WEEL takes over all manufacturing assets, technology rights, patents and supplier agreements and will continue focusing on the design, manufacturing and system integration of Wearable Electronic into Apparel, Bag and Accessory products.

The team of WEEL Technologies worked with leading brands to design, manufacture and integrate Wearable Electronic solutions into Apparel, Bags and Accessories like:

• Wearable Remote Controls (China Coin and customized keypads)
• Personal Audio (Wearable Speakers & Amplifiers for iPod/MP3 Players)
• Illumination (Electroluminescent and LED Lights)
• Environment (Heated Apparel, Cooling Accessories and Wearable Sensors)
• Power (Portable Solar Panels with Rechargeable Power Banks)

“The WEEL team is very excited about our future. WEEL will focus on delivering Wearable Electronics components and systems to our core market in the Action Sports industry. Our management team has been fortunate to be part of some of the best success stories in Action Sports over the past 5 years,” said Michael Corbett, General Manager of WEEL Technologies, former President of FITRIGHT Industrial.

“Our agreements with Apple and Bluetooth SIG have transferred into WEEL to enable the latest developments in iPod/iPhone as well as personal wireless applications.”

Apparel and soft good brands interested in getting their product ideas realized have yet another option to bring their Wearable Electronic design ideas to the market.

[source: press release]

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Peratech Limited acquired the business of Eleksen from Deloittes, the appointed administrator of Eleksen plc and Eleksen Limited.

Eleksen went into administration in Oct. 2007 after being unsuccessful in raising additional funding needed to realize their ambitious plans for 2008.

Eleksen gave a big boost to Wearable Electronic and Interactive Clothing by working with major brands as O’Neill, ZegnaSport, Marks & Spencer’s, Kenpo, Jansport and many others over the past two years. A large range of products has been introduced as you can see on the many products we posted about on talk2myShirt.

Philip Taysom, joint CEO of Peratech commented “The sad demise of Eleksen plc took everyone by surprise - and we have worked very hard to ensure there is a smooth transition for customers who had planned products based around Eleksen’s ElekTex apparel control products for the 2008 seasons - manufacturing is being brought back online and we look forward to fulfilling customer requirements in the immediate future.”

Peratech invented and developed QTC (Quantum Tunneling Composites), a technology for electro-active polymeric materials which enable the action of ‘touch’ to be translated into an electrical reaction. QTC materials allow to incorporate very thin and highly robust ’sensing’ of touch.

The QTC technology has been commercialized by Peratech in 2006 and is working currently with a number of clients which implement QTC sensing technology within their own products.

Peratech acquired in 2006 another pioneer of smart fabrics, SOFTswitch™ and their technology and integrated it within its own QTC operation.

This is very good news for the Wearable Electronic community and the brands that worked on the 2008 interactive apparel range but also good news for the consumer who can find and select from the next generation of Interactive Clothing.

2008 becomes a very interesting year having already two promising announcements so far, one is the new CONNECTED-wear™ system from Fibretronic and now the revival of ElekTex sensors from Peratech.

[via: BusinessWire.com]

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Technologist turned designer Moritz Waldemeyer created a innovative stage outfit for US rock band OK Go.

During their resent performance, OK Go light up the stage literally with Waldemeyer’s latest creation of thousands of LEDs stitched onto the jackets of the band.

Waldemyer has illuminated high fashion items in collaboration with Hussein Chalayan successfully before and it seems he is now exploring on his own the fashion world, or at least the show business world.

Flickering lights of slot machines in the casinos of Las Vegas inspired Waldemeyer to create this innovative stage costumes that blend perfectly into OK Go’s own synthesis of Power Pop and tongue-in-cheek wit.

When the band appears on stage, the LED lights embedded in their jackets run through a sequence that makes up the letters O K G O – like a Vegas slot-machine scrolling through its symbols to spell the band’s name.

OK Go’s stage wear jackets are a playful experiment that might indicate Waldemeyer’s future aspirations into the fashion world using his unique knowledge of merging electronic with fabrics in an spectacular and sparkling way.

And for all who do not know OK Go, here is a link to their YouTube video ‘Here It Goes Again‘ which helped OK Go to fame and the Grammy award for ‘Best Short-Form Music Video’ in 2007. This video was viewed so far over twenty five million times!

[source: Dezeen]

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Around half year ago we have posted about the Hug Shirt, a concept created by the fabulous team of Francesca Rosella and Ryan Genz, the founders of CuteCircuit, have taken on the challenge to bring this great idea to reality.

Much has been written and said about the Hug Shirt but it seems this, once seen as ‘just a concept’ idea, is reaching the next level, being a product that consumers can buy.

So what exactly is it? The Hug Shirt is basically a Bluetooth accessory, according to CuteCircuit, that works together with Java enabled cellphones.

Sensors integrated into the Hug Shirt register your hug and sends the intensity and position of your hug via Bluetooth to your cellphone running the Hug Me java software which in turn sends this data as simple SMS to the special someone you want to hug right now even if this special someone is thousand of miles away from you.

What’s more, you can send hugs without having the Hug Shirt on your body. The Hug Me java software on your cellphone offers you the area(s) and intensity of the hug you want to send and your special someone will feel that you are thinking right now about her/him. Of course, at least the receiver needs a Hug Shirt otherwise there is no point in sending your hugs.

A cute idea the Hug Shirt from CuteCircuit.

Oh yes, let’s go to the practical part just in case you wonder: the Hug Shirt is washable, just remove the sensor pads that are designed to be taken off for just this case - for washing.

Why I am so exited about the Hug Shirt? According our source www.chip.de the Hug Shirt should be available in US in time for the gift giving season to give your loved ones a hug when you have to be far away on a trip. Available first in US only, it will cost around $ 300.-

As soon as we can track down a shop or address from where to get the Hug Shirt we will beam it up on our blog here, so stay tuned.

[source: chip.de] (German site)

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