Wearable Technology : Successfully Failing?
A Study To Assess The Right Balance Between Fashion & Technology
With a multitude of brands trying to expand into fashion infused with technology, the options for wearable fashion technology which is available to the consumers has indeed increased. But the products available today don't precisely combine the fashion factor with cutting edge technology to produce a truly innovative fashionable product.
My research aims to dissect the state of the current market, why does fashion tech constantly fail and how brands can succeed in creating the right product which is appealing to customers. The research is based on review of various academic papers, study of the product market over last 40 years, review of specialised articles by experts along with quantitative analysis. The research also leverages the knowledge and data from my practical experiences of creating wearable fashion tech products and opinions of industry experts.
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Wearable tech has been around for a long time, dating back to 1280 when the eyeglasses were invented, which was groundbreaking at the time and now over the centuries has evolved into a fashion accessory.
Though there is no fixed definition of wearable technology in literature, it can be simply defined as technology devices which are worn on users body.
Carrying it to context of fashion, we can also safely establish that it is the integration or use of technology in fashion products in such a way that it serves some purpose or function.
The new generation of wearables can be ‘connected clothing’ which are aided by minimum hardware and leverage true potential of technology on the digital end. The new avenues in wearable technology and connected clothing do not have to be complex products which are embedded with sensors and input methods. The immediate future of fashion can be evolved forms of today’s commercial fashion and not necessarily products made from ground up.
In order to truly balance fashion and functionality in wearables, we must shift focus to fashion articles which consumers use everyday.
Curious to know how can we integrate non-intrusive technology in our products? Read my complete published research here.