Vuln!! Path it now!!
January 9, 2017
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Walking alone at night is a stressful experience for a lot of women. The fear of an attack is real and rarely is there time to alert anyone if you need help. Some women carry around personal attack alarms or hold down the ‘dial’ button on their cell phone until they are safely home, but these solutions only work if you are anticipating something happening. WiseWear has developed a line a wearable smart bracelets, named Socialite, designed not only to help women track their activity and receive notifications but to also keep them safe. By simply tapping the device 3 times, a message is instantly sent to a preset list of contacts indicating you need help. The message also includes a map with your location marked. The bracelet can even trigger an audio recording of your surroundings. Looks wise, WiseWear has developed an extremely clever modular system so that it doesn’t look like you only own one bracelet. The brains of the wearable is in the bottom half of the bracelet. The top portion can be swapped out to create completely different looks. Currently the company has 3 designs which are all interchangeable and plans to release more in the future. You will just need to decide if you prefer all of your Socialite bracelets to be gold or silver. The Socialite costs $299.95, has a 3 day battery life, and is currently available for preorder in 3 styles. WiseWear has not yet posted pricing for additional modular styles. Head past the break to see all the looks.
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When British fashion designer Henry Holland showed off his Spring / Summer 2016 looks this weekend at London Fashion Week, the show became an interactive experience for a few lucky VIPs. The designer crafted and distributed 10 NFC enabled rings. The rings were handmade to look like insects, matching the “Urban Safari” theme of collection and were preloaded with £500. Three of the models walked the runway with a special leaf-shaped brooch, which was a NFC receiver. After the show, the VIPs could walk up to one of the 3 different looks, hold their ring next to the model’s brooch, and purchase the look. They were then able to walk out the door with their purchase.
According to an interview with The Telegraph, Holland stated, “A really big thing for me was making the tech invisible, especially if I’m incorporating it into something as important as my show. From my point of view it was really about creating two items – the ring and the brooch – that were really desirable pieces that people would want to wear themselves, but just happened to have those capabilities.”
This year, increasing customer engagement at Fashion Week events has become a predominate theme. Social media is being used more and more as a tool by designers to engage a global audience, granting them instant access to see the newest looks. Holland has been pushing things even further; he also wants to allow people to immediately own the new looks instead of having to wait 6 months. While only 10 people had this ability during his SS16 show, at House Of Holland’s menswear show last spring, the entire collection was made available for purchase immediately. Earlier this year we posed the question of where Fashion Week events were headed – pushing towards consumer or towards trade. As New York and London Fashion Weeks wrap, it seems the momentum is clearly towards a consumer focus.
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Last Fall we took a look at a smartwatch designed for women by Omate. The company is back, this time with a high-end connected ring. Recently Apple has seen tremendous success with their higher-end watches, Olio can’t seem to produce enough, and TAG Heuer has indicated their smartwatch with cost close to $1,400; luxury wearables are starting to find an audience and Omate has decided it doesn’t want to be left out. The company is working with French design house Emanuel Ungaro to launch the aptly named Ungaro ring.
The ring costs between $500 and $2,000 depending on your choice of materials; you can choose from onyx, ruby, blue topaz, or opalite stones mounted to a 18K gold or silver plated ring. As far as features, well, there aren’t many. In fact the only thing the Bluetooth connected ring does is vibrate when you receive a notification from one person of your choosing (and only that person). No other notifications will cause the ring to vibrate. Omate’s Ungaro ring has one large competitor in the “connected ring” market, Ringly. Despite some initial mixed reviews, Ringly offers a much larger feature set, including a colored LED, at a much lower price point, $195 to $260. The Ungaro ring launches for iOS this November and in early 2016 for Android. As with other Omate products, the ring will be sold through Richline Group retail partners.
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Business Insider recently got their hands on a Ringly and have just posted a review. Originally announced in 2013, Ringly was one of the first wearable devices to specifically target women. The device features your choice of one of 5 precious and semi-precious stones set in an 18K matte gold setting. Depending on what type of notification you receive and whom it is from, you can set the ring to vibrate in one of 4 patterns and a small LED on the side to illuminate in one of 5 colors.
Browsing the Business Insider review, the first thing that jumps out at you is that the device does not look like a $260 ring. The matte gold makes the setting look like cheap plastic and the thing is huge. According to the site, Ringly is around 3/4″ tall – a far cry from the discreet device that was originally spoken about by the company. In practice, the notifications are reported as being useful but since most of them came from users that you haven’t assigned specific notifications for, you are constantly pulling your phone out to see who was trying to communicate with you. To that end, when out to dinner, the reviewer found the ring more distracting than setting your phone out. Business Insider ultimately concluded that dollar for dollar, they would rather pay more and purchase an Apple Watch. Please check out their full review!
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Ask most women and they will tell you that wearable tech has been predominately male focused. The techie look of Pebble, smartwatches 46mm in diameter, and the all plastic Fitbit have few redeeming fashion qualities, especially on a well dressed lady. Bellabeat is looking to change that with the Leaf. The Leaf is a full featured fitness tracker that can be worn as a bracelet, necklace, or broach. It is constructed of two parts, the front piece is a simple, elegant metal leaf while the back is a small wooden case housing the electronics. It tracks stress, sleep, and activity data and syncs via Bluetooth with your mobile phone. Feel like your daily life is too crazy to deal with daily charging, the Leaf has a 6 month battery life. Further illustrating their commitment to produce wearable devices for women, Bellabeat has stated that they will included software to help you track your period, contraception intake, and ovulation cycle. The Leaf is expected to ship this month and will cost $89. Head past the break for a video:
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UPDATE: Intel / Opening Ceremonies have posted a marketing video (starring Rashida Jones!) of MICA in action. Head past the break.
Intel hasn’t made it a secret that it wants to be part of the wearable technology movement. This month at NYFW, Intel along with design partner Opening Ceremonies debuted MICA (which stands for My Intelligent Communication Accessory). According to Intel “if you take a tech company and make a wearable, it looks like a tech-company wearable.” The company believes that by forming strategic partnerships with companies already in the fashion space, they will be able to create more compelling wearable devices. The high-end MICA bangles were designed by Opening Ceremonies to be true fashion pieces without sacrificing usability. MICA features a curved touchscreen, 3G connectivity, and wireless charging. The bangles are covered in snake skin and feature stones such as obsidian and tiger’s eye. Intel expects the bangle to go on sale in time for the holidays at a price around $1000. It will be available at Barney’s and from Opening Ceremony.
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