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Wearable Technology – what’s ready to wear

We have talked a lot about wearable technology on this blog, but very little about what is already available out there. After a little research on Google and the Fashioning Tech blog, here are the fashion technological attires and accessories you can buy online.

Led Jacket for Nocturnal Cyclists: At the price of $340 dollars, this jacket is easy on the eyes and useful. Made by fashion designer Angella Mackey, this item is now sold out, but you can subscribe to her mailing list and be the first to know when it’s back on sale.

Cute Circuit clothes: From t-shirts that light up when you move to a dress that allows you to receive and make calls without your cellphone, anything from CuteCircuit is fashionable, technological and available for purchase.

Clothing based on the sound of your voice: Trikoton, a berlin based fashion company, developed a technology  that can make the prints of your garment represent the uniqueness of your voice. That’s all thanks to an application that converts the frequency of audio into binary codes turned into knitting patterns. Talk about customized!

Goggles that optimize performance: If winter sports are your thing, this a wearable technology you could use. These goggles by Zeal Optics have a GPS system and show speed, altitude and temperature in real time. For $500, it can be yours.

Saw anything lately that is technological and is out for sale? Share it in the comments!

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3 responses to “Wearable Technology – what’s ready to wear”

  1. pickup Avatar
    pickup

    Old Navy Techno World: A little more accessible for the general public: Old Navy is advertising their new Techno World clothing items for the holidays including jackets with headphones built in, light up clothing and musical tees. Its neat to see mainstream fashion integrating with technology, even if it is just for the holidays. If successful, it seems viable that these trends may stick around as a new market is introduced to tech fashion.

    Think Geek: Think Geek helped out with the musical shirts and is an important resource for almost any tech toy you could think of.

  2. tamekareeves Avatar
    tamekareeves

    Items like these put me in mind of our philosophical discussions of the cyborg and specifically the optimized body. These articles of clothing are without a doubt some of the coolest and handiest things I have ever seen. I do wonder, however, if they suggest a move towards an unattainable optimized version of the human body. Don’t get me wrong. I like digitized, and literally connected, fashion as much as the next geeky fashionista. However if fashion is itself a communication medium, then one’s choice of attire communicates something about the wearer. I wonder what it says when we choose clothes that literally give ordinary (and frankly good enough just the way they were created) people seemingly superhuman abilities? I do admit, however, that a critical interpretation such as this one presents a slippery slope. The Fresh Lipstick book painstakingly pointed out that the feminist “natural” ideal is nothing more than an idealized artificial construct itself. To truly be “natural” one would have to walk around unwashed, uncoifed, fuzzy (read: hairy legs/armpits/other), and naked! Hmm…no thanks. So there is a line there somewhere between the natural and the idealized if I can’t exactly place where it is – or more importantly where it should be.

  3. pickup Avatar
    pickup

    If any of you were wanting the LED jacket for nocturnal cyclists but were dismayed to find it sold out – you can make your own a lot cheaper following Leah Buechley’s “Turn Signal Biking Jacket” using an Arduino Lilypad and some LEDs for probably about a third of the price.

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