Urgency and creative tensions are pulling together fashion and technology companies, creating unfamiliar collaborations in the race to make smart clothes and wearable accessories.
‘Seamless’ is not a word often used to describe the relationship between the worlds of fashion and technology. Out of necessity, a new fusion is rapidly forming between the two as the hype around wearable technologies reaches a fever pitch.
The rise of smartwatches, eyewear that accesses the Internet, plus tech-infused garments and accessories is shifting a once-fledgling business opportunity into space race like bonanza.
Even though the wearable device market is still in its infancy, research firm Canalyspredicts smart bands, including health trackers like FitBit, will grow from 8 million annual shipments this year to more than 45 million by 2017.
Level ground for this wearable tech convergence is somewhere between the worlds of fashion and technology, or a crisscross combination of both.
“Wearables are about fashion and function, and between [the] two industries [of] tech and fashion there is a lot of tension, but everyone sees the opportunities,” said Deepa Sood, the founder of Silicon Valley startup Cuff, a technology-enabled jewelry company.
Big brand names and creative individuals interested in fashion and technology are seeing the need to reach out for help. This tension could lead to once unimaginable collaborations formed out of necessity.
“Like politics make strange bed fellows, for the fashion industry, tech makes strange bed fellows,” said Sood during a recent visit to Intel.
According to an article by Ashley Kindergan in Credit Suisse’s news site, the ability that brands have to develop effective partnerships for bridging function and fashion will determine the ultimate potential of a large – yet abstract – market, reaching upwards of $30-50 billion of the next 3 to 5 years.
Fitbit Flex is collaborating with Tory Burch, a high-profile American fashion designer, to transform the fitness tracker into a more fashionable, super-chic accessory people can wear for work or weekends, day or night.
Billie Whitehouse, designer and co-founder of Wearable Experiments (We:eX) made waves with a Durex partnership to create Fundawear, successfully winning an award for the project at the Cannes Lions 60th International Festival of Creativity 2013.
In January, Barneys New York, the Council of Fashion Designers of America and Opening Ceremony from the fashion industry teamed up with computer chip maker Intel to co-invent the future of wearables. The partnership brought together technology innovation, style and design acumen, an understanding of the consumer and lifestyle trendsetting capabilities.
“Our common vision is accelerating innovation in the field of wearables and producing products that add value to people’s lives,” said Ayse Ildeniz, general manager of strategy and business development for Intel’s New Devices Group in a recent report byL2ThinkTank and Intel.
Having people see the value wearables is essential to keeping this trend from becoming a flash in the pan. Most consumers today aren’t yet convinced that they need wearable tech devices, according to James Russo, a senior vice president at Nielsen.
“The next twelve months will be a critical period for the acceptance and adoption of wearable devices,” said Joshua Flood, a senior analyst at ABI Research.
“Aesthetic design, more compelling use cases, battery life and lower price points are the main inhibitors. How vendors approach these challenges and their respective solutions will affect the wearable market far in the future.”
So much experimentation is going on that J.P. Gownder, an analyst at market researcherForrester, believes that up to 90 percent of the wearable devices currently on the market will vanish in the next few years.
“I think until these devices really solve a problem people want to have solved, they’re just going to be kind of a gimmick,” said Mike Bell, vice president and general manager of Intel’s New Devices Group, in a recent interview with CNBC.
In a nod to the need for collaborating across the fashion and tech industries, Bell said, “Your next smartwatch might look just like a high end Swiss watch today but do something using the high tech inside of it. We all win when the technology really looks as good as it works.”
Bell, whose team was behind Intel’s acquisition of smartwatch maker Basis, has a goal to build the parts that everyone uses in all of their wearables. He said his team will be providing reference designs, software and chips for anyone wanting to make wearable devices that are attractive and meet the wants and needs of people’s everyday lives.
At the center of many of these reference designs will be technologies like Intel Edison, designed for tiny, energy-sipping wireless devices.
While finding the right form and function is necessary for wearables to live up to the increasing hype surround the category, this approach may be easier said than done.
“The appetite for where wearables is going is pervasive,” said Sood. “We still haven’t cracked the code for whether or not this is going to have legs. Buzz and hype about wearables belie the fact that it’s still the Wild West.”
The recent closure of the Nike FuelBand illustrates how producing devices and software services in-house can be very challenging. The substantial resources and relationships needed to feed research and development of new wearables, along with the rapid iteration required, may not be conducive to many in the fashion world who are focused on seasonal patterns.
To do it right – at a high quality and velocity – requires specialization, cross discipline integration, supply chain, marketing and sales. This is why designers are co-developing or distributing wearable products with other experts, according to Sood.
“Enterprises have clear ideas and know their industry,” she said. “It’s better to work with them then dream up things in our Cuff Cave.”
Sood’s line of smart jewelry builds off of her previous experience as vice president of product development at Restoration Hardware. Her sense for style, understanding of retail shopping and what it takes to mass produce things from design to product is an interesting example of finding the right relationships across the fashion and technology worlds.
While Cuff has little barrier to entry, Sood said the challenge for people making new wearables is in volumes. Without the right partnerships, many new wearable designs are merely prototypes or even vaporwear – more like ideas on paper.
Other significant challenges centers on retail shopping experiences. Real estate can be expensive, leaving retail spaces under pressure to produce the best return, and therefore items on display must attract sales.
Wearable fashion items need to be given the space in the physical store for consumers to experience, according to Margaux Guerard, co-founder and president of the wearable fashion brand MEMI. Guerard is the former director of global marketing at Diane von Furstenberg. She points out that creating memorable experiences through exhibiting wearables is an impactful way to surprise and delight shoppers.
Then consider that well-known retailers also have to compete online. In April, Amazon’s Wearable Technology store opened its virtual doors. This may make it easier for wearable tech makers to sell more products, but it might also increase price competition.
This is something Sood sees as good thing.
“Innovation in wearables is the thing everyone is talking about,” she said.
If done right, from stylistic design to excellent shopping experiences, then wearables will have the potential to create the kind of buzz and interest that arises from seeing something really beautiful.
“There’s an opportunity here to show people a brand new way of doing things,” said Sood.
