What better, bigger start into the new wearable electronic year could there be as to announce the availability of the ‘king of interactive clothing’ the long awaited NavJacket from O’Neill.

The NavJacket is not only cool, it is uber cool as this sophisticated jacket comes with an sophisticated social networking tool that allows the uploading and sharing of your rides down the slopes on 420 European ski areas and on 180 skiing resorts in United States.

Check out the NavJacket online community as there are already some active members racing downhill and share their rides.

It’s like the Nike+ site for runner but even more interesting as you can show on Google Earth where you have been and leave your mark in form of ‘here is my favorite spot’ or ‘here I crashed terrible’ with the POI (point of interest) button on the jacket.

The navigation throughout a ski resort is as easy as checking your sleeve display and if you or your friend got lost, the friend-finder function brings you together again.

The price of the NavJacket is as sophisticated as the Jacket itself, €1,200.- ($1,635.-) but one needs to consider that this Jacket has an GPS unit, a LCD display in the sleeve and the e-textile keypad. Order your NavJacket online here.

The Keypad is cleverly design with the 2008/09 O’Neill signature shape of an ‘S’ shape making ‘bling’ navigation easier. On top of this, the NavJacket keypad has color coding for even easier navigation while racing down the hills.

Check out via this link the online simulation of the NavJackets navigation and other cool features.

The NavJacket is without any doubt the most sophisticated Interactive Jacket on the market and sets O’Neill far ahead of any competition in this winter season and I guess for a while longer.

O’Neill prepares to launch the NavJacket for the winter season 2008/09. Introduced end of last year, this ground breaking intelligent jacket proofs once again the innovative leadership of O’Neill’s H-Division team in the wearable electronic market.

The final version of the NavJacket has a slightly different arm display than the prototype seen before, a more conventional color LCD display similar as we use in our electronic gadgets although snugly integrated and protected against rough rides down the slopes.

The NavJacket helps navigating in the wilderness of the mountains, especially when visibility becomes suddenly low. Enter the place you want to end up and it will guide you down safely.

Another cool feature is the ‘friend finder’ allowing to find your friends on the slopes or follow them down the path they took.

The NavJacket is made of high performance Gore-Tex ® material. Price and effective launch date is not yet available but we will stay on the lookout and post about as soon as it becomes public.

I have to close this post with a side remark: GPS functionality fully integrated into an outdoor jacket seems to me more sensible compared to the currently widely publicized GPS Lingerie from Brazil by which I don’t really get the point of the sensibility neither why one could not but a pocket GPS in any kind of clothing, not just a see-through lingerie pocket.