Smart clothing: wearable technology

Studio XO (see previous post) brings cutting-edge technology to the fashion business. But this team is not alone in practically integrating machines with our bodies. Historically, this idea has always been perceived as too "cyber" or science fiction. Recently, however, a group of products called wearable tech has almost instantly appeared in the fashion business. The point of wearable tech is to integrate emerging technologies with mainstream clothing.

Nuremberg, Germany. Adidas, an icon company in the world of sports, has spent several years researching a technological system that can be integrated into clothing and perform time monitoring. Matt Hymers, director of innovation at Adidas, shows off a jersey with the tech elements: "This is what athletes wear. It's easy to see that there are sensors sewn into the fabric that are part of the product. We integrate motion sensors into the fabric in such a way that athletes don't feel these elements."

"When we first did the MVP (prototype)," says Matt, "we were faced with the question of what the interface (design) should be for the user (user), how to show them the data. Our first model had physical wires under the fabric, but not yet sensors embedded in the shirt. Imagine that there were players who cut the sleeves off for five hundred euros because they were uncomfortable in these clothes. For us, the need to modify the jersey became obvious. We set a specific goal: to get the most professional physiological monitoring development team. These professionals are in the forward of what's involved in technology, as they use a lot of systems and collect a lot of data. "Wearable technology is a cool and useful topic applicable to monitoring our body. People always want to know what's happening to them and how to improve their quality of life. At the end of the day, we're just measuring things, it's essentially about how we use and present data".

It turns out that the Adidas team is genuinely interested in not just developing smart clothing technology, but in taking the sports industry as a whole to the next level. I, as well as other fashion insiders (those in the know) have a hunch that as time goes on, there will be more and more sensors embedded in our clothing. And this will not only happen in sports, but also in everyday life, which is really necessary to understand how our bodies function. When they talk about wearable technology, a lot of emphasis is put on devices and sensors, like watches that do this or that.

But that's not the most important part. Right now we're just entering a new era of wearable technology, so over time things will get faster, smaller, smarter. We will witness a whole new wearable environment. And it won't just be devices, fabrics or things. We will see the rise of new platforms for this medium! While tech devices are becoming less visible and easier to integrate into everyday life, they are already starting to become more mainstream. Write in the comments below, is the value of technology embedded in clothing obvious to you?