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Sensilk Take Flight Fitness Tracking Sports Bra
Sports

Sensilk Sports Bra With Integrated Fitness Tracker Launches

June 5, 2015

Sensilk Take Flight Fitness Tracking Sports Bra

In order for a fitness tracker to be integrated into a men’s shirt, the shirt has to be tight and form fitting. Women luckily don’t have that issue since the tight fitting band of their sports bra can be used. Sensilk is looking to capitalize on that with their “smart” sports bra. The bra utilizes sensors to monitor heart rate, distance, breaths per minute, and calories burnt. It also monitors heart rate recovery and heart rate variability to track your overall fitness level. The bra collects all of the data through a small module on the front of the garment and transmits it via Bluetooth to your phone, providing unique data summaries before, during, and after the workout. While the bra doesn’t sound as full featured as some of the smart shirts on the market, the companion app looks stellar. It seems to be designed to present as much usable information to the wearer as possible, including an overall fitness score. As an interesting side note, Hap Klopp, the founder of North Face, is one of the company’s advisors. The Sensilk Take Flight Bra cost $140 and has just started shipping. Head past the break for a video:  

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by Doug Parker
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Project Jacquard and Levi's
Clothing, Fashion, Wearable Technology

Levi’s Partners With Google On Sensor Embedded Clothing

May 29, 2015

Project Jacquard and Levi's

At this weeks Google I/O conference, Google announced Project Jacquard, an effort to develop touch sensors that can be seamlessly integrated into textiles. The idea is intriguing and could play a very large role in wearable technology in the future! The word “Jacquard” is a term related to loom weaving, referring to the added control mechanism that makes possible the automatic production of unlimited varieties of pattern weaving. It is perhaps one of the most important technologies in the sphere of textile creation. Project Jacquard is an effort by Google to create a yarn that is comprised of both fabric and conductive threads. A traditional automated loom can then be used to integrate the yarn into textiles. The conductive threads allow the fabric to be touch sensitive and understand where you are touching the fabric. This special fabric could be imbedded into textiles used for clothing, home decor, or even the seats of your car. The technology that drives fabric is housed on a circuit board slightly larger than a button.

The idea of integrating touch sensors into clothing isn’t new, but being able to seamlessly integrate it with a yarn that can be used in a loom is. Creating a yarn that can easy be utilized by any designer is wise; Google recognizes that while they can develop technology they are not clothing designers. As such, they have announce a partnership with Levi’s. No word on when we might see a jean jacket the allows you to answer your phone by swiping your arm, but we will let you know when there is! Head past the break to learn more about the tech!  

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by Doug Parker
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Clothing

Elizabeth & Clarke Launch “Unstainable” Shirt

May 13, 2015

Elizabeth & Clarke Unstainable Shirt

It is one of the great mysteries of the world; put on a white shirt and you are guaranteed a stain will find its way onto it before the end of the day. Budget women’s fashion brand Elizabeth & Clarke has a solution with their simply named The Unstainable™ White Shirt. The shirt is currently on Kickstarter and has well exceeded its goal of $30,000. It is no big secret that hydrophobic materials are the key to making textiles resistant to liquid. The coatings work by disrupting the hydrogen bond that binds together water molecules. In order for the water molecule to maintain its structural integrity, it has to push away from the material. Thus, waterproofing is achieved. The problem is hydrophobic materials and coatings typically don’t breath and are not soft against the skin. Elizabeth & Clarke has spent 6 months researching and trialling different combinations of coatings and materials to allow silks and cottons to still feel like silks and cottons.

According to Melanie Moore, co-founder of Elizabeth & Clark, The Unstainable™ White Shirt is as soft as a pair of comfy PJs. The key to maintaining the suppleness of the fabric is liquid-repelling fibers 100,000 times smaller than a grain of sand. These fibers are applied to the textile of choice through a bathing and curing process, allowing the fabric to maintain its original breathability. The shirts maintain their hydrophobic qualities for at least two years and actually improve with ironing. They are currently available to purchase through Kickstarter: $25 for a tee and $50 for a blouse. See a very heavily produced video from Elizabeth & Clarke about the garment after the break.  

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by Doug Parker
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LED Dress Rebecca Street 2015 BAFTA
Fashion

Rebecca Street Designed LED Gown At BAFTA Awards

May 11, 2015

LED Dress Rebecca Street 2015 BAFTAAt last night’s BAFTA Television Awards in London, actress Donna Air stole the spotlight on the red carpet wearing a Rebecca Street designed LED gown. Street, who previously had been Alexander McQueen’s creative cutter and sculptor, designed the dress in collaboration with House Of Fraser, a UK fashion website. The LEDs are integrated into both the structure and draping of the gown. Multiple sensors built into the garment monitor movement. Using that information, LED drivers create light patterns and shading reflecting the movements of the wearer. The dress is without a doubt a technical achievement and is very eye catching; it is unfortunate that some of the LED strips, especially around the waist, look as stiff as the $25 spools of LED lights you can purchase on Amazon. Head past the break to a fantastic video of the gown being assembled and to see it in motion.  

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by Doug Parker
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Crowdsource, Fashion

Trusst Uses 3D Printers To Design A New Type Of Bra

May 8, 2015

Trusst Lingerie Bra 3D Printed Support

Trusst Lingerie has designed a new type of bra aimed at offering better support to bustier women. The technology behind the bra comes from the engineering world; the two women behind the project looked at the trusses that support bridges from underneath and sought to apply the same concept to a bra. Their design relies on the ribcage for support instead of the shoulders. The company, currently Kickstarting their first production run, relied heavily on MakerBot 3D printers to prototype and design the support for the undergarment. The entire support structure was modeled on a computer and then printed. Using the 3D printer, they were able to quickly and inexpensively tweak the design and test it with a wide variety of body shapes. It is exciting to see the fashion industry find new, out-of-the-box, and unexpected uses for 3D printers, creating items that would not have been possible only a few years ago.

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by Doug Parker
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Emotia Belty Smart Belt
Fashion, Wearable Technology

Belty, the Auto Adjusting Smart-Belt

January 14, 2015

Emotia Belty Smart Belt

We didn’t know we needed a smart-belt until we saw it but now it is on our list. Sure Emiota’s Belty is able to track your daily activity, vibrate when it is time to move, and monitor changes in your waist line. It also connects to your phone via Bluetooth 4.0. These are all great things to have built into a belt, which you would need to be wearing anyways. But the attention grabbing feature is straight out of Back To The Future 2; the belt will auto adjust when you sit, stand up, or eat too much, maintaining a consistent tightness. Simply put Belty on, tighten it so that it is a comfortable tightness, and double tap the buckle to let it know that is how tight you like it. Belty will then work all day to maintain the same tightness in the belt. The device on display at CES was an early prototype but Emiota is hopeful is can bring a more polished (and miniaturized) version of Belty to market by the end of the year.

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by Doug Parker
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Clothing

Bionic Bra Adjusts Fit For Any Activity

December 10, 2014

Bionic BraWe all know taking care of your breasts is important for your health and we have heard the statistics such as 85% of women are wearing bra’s that don’t fit them. Researchers at the University of Wollongong in Austria believe that the fault of the poor fit lies with the bra. For the past 15 years they have been working to create a bra that can adjust to fit you perfectly and adapts to whatever activity you are partaking in. Professors Gordon Wallace and Julie Steele recently unveiled their prototype. The Bionic Bra looks like a souped up sports bra and is designed to sense how much support is needed and adjust the fit of the bra accordingly. So if you are sitting in a car the Bionic Bra will loosen and if you are working out it will tighten. At this point the bulky prototype is not washable and doesn’t adjust to your body to create the perfect fit. The researchers are now working to solve that and to make the Bionic Bra more fashionable.

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by Doug Parker
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