Clothing Makers Target Gadget Users; A Ski-Jacket With a Remote Sewn In
Digital products are taking over our lives in many ways. They're also taking over our clothing. People walk around with as many as three devices -- a PDA, a cellphone, and a pager or e-mail receiver -- jammed into various pockets, or dangling from belts, or crammed into purses that lack good compartments for them.
You know the scenario: A cellphone rings and someone scrambles to find the phone in a bottomless purse or bag. She detangles and then attaches her "hands-free" headset to the phone and finally starts talking if the caller hasn't hung up yet. Or someone who uses multiple digital devices can't seem to remember in which pocket he crammed his Global Positioning Service-enabled Palm Pilot in time to turn right on Michigan Avenue.
But now, the clothing industry -- or a tiny branch of it -- has come up with garments specifically designed for toting all these gadgets and using them conveniently. These items range from marketing gimmicks to impressive new technology, and my assistant, Katie, and I have been trying out some of them. To our surprise, they didn't make us look as geeky as we'd feared they might.
The techno-garments break down into three categories: clothing designed with specific compartments and places for holding high-tech products; clothing designed with such pockets, but also with conduits for the wires so things such as earbuds are easier to use; and truly futuristic clothing with wiring and even control buttons actually sewn right into the material.
The most basic category includes coats from Sanyo Fashion House Inc. and Palm Inc. These coats have a special pocket for Palm devices, lined with static-shielded material, as well as a cellphone pocket lined with antimagnetic material. Coats with such pockets range from $225 to $750, though I have never had a static-electricity or magnetic problem with Palms and phones in regular old coats.
Even Dockers pants are getting in on the action. The Dockers Mobile Pant, which costs about $52, has several special pockets that conceal technological gadgets. The Web site advertises that, "Now men can carry their gear without the world knowing it. Style is the only thing you can't hide."
Dominating the second, more elaborate category is something called the SCOTTeVEST. These are jackets, with removable sleeves, that are available in various colors and in several models ranging from $79 to $149.99.
At first glance, the SCOTTeVEST, by SCOTTeVEST LLC, looks like a normal windbreaker. But once unzipped, its true purpose is revealed. The jackets sport as many as 22 different compartments inside, covering almost every inch of available material. You can vary the sizes of some of the pockets by attaching and detaching hidden Velcro seals. There's even a place in back for a flat water pack, with a drinking tube that can be snaked up toward your neck.
Extra Padding
The most useful pockets are made so that your phone, MP3 or CD player can be carried comfortably while the wires connecting to earbuds can run from the device through a thin, long compartment in the coat and up to your ears. There are even tiny, convenient hidden pouches that hold your earbuds while you're not using them. All models come with extra padding in the shoulders so that when you fill the pockets with gadgets, water bottles, magazines and other items, the weight is evenly spread across your shoulders.
SCOTTeVEST
by SCOTTeVEST, LLC.
Price: $79 to $149.99. Features:
Up to 22 compartments for gadgets
and more, including special spaces
for wires and earbuds.
More info: www.scottevest.com1
We were actually surprised by the attractiveness of the Scott jacket. Katie walked around the office in one and didn't look like a woman toting Apple's iPod MP3 player, a Palm, a book and a large bottle of water, without her purse. I briefly wore one on the streets of Las Vegas, during last week's Consumer Electronics Show, and didn't attract undue attention (although both the trade show and Vegas itself are settings where it's pretty hard to look odd). However, when you start to pull things out of the jacket, you risk looking like either a shady watch dealer, or a circus clown who yanks miles of scarves from his pocket.
If you really want to draw attention, you can now buy special backpacks with speakers mounted in the sides and compartments for your choice of audio player. The combination allows any hiker to destroy the serenity of nature with really loud music. One such backpack, the Osiris G-Bag (www.osirisgbag.com2), has a battery-powered amplifier built in and internal Velcro tabs for securing the wires that connect the player, the amp and the speakers. We didn't test it, but various models sell for $100 to $200.
But the most interesting garment we tested falls into the third, techiest category -- clothing with electrical connections and controls physically integrated into its fibers. We tested the Burton Amp, from Burton Snowboards and Apple Computer, a jacket that is made for use only with the Apple iPod. It's a handsome, perfectly normal-looking winter jacket, with one difference -- a fabric panel on the left sleeve with a set of raised audio-control buttons.
The 'Brains' of the Jacket
The iPod fits snugly into a stiff, custom-shaped outer compartment near where the left breast pocket would normally be located, and connects to a tiny black box that zips into its own pouch. This interface module, which Burton calls the "brains" of the jacket, is essentially a reconfigured iPod remote control. A white cloth data cable, a ribbon with conductive fibers in it, is sewn down the inside of the sleeve of the jacket to the forearm area, where the five raised circular buttons appear on the outside material of the coat. Something called SOFTswitch technology allows these flexible, fabric buttons to replace hard plastic.
These SOFTswitch buttons are made for snowboarders or skiers who don't want to take their gloves off to play, pause, skip songs or adjust volume while listening to music. And they do work. But there are some drawbacks. We didn't get it hooked up properly on the first try, and had to wiggle around and reconnect the iPod's earbud cable to the black box to get it all to work. And, because the iPod's screen and its wheel-shaped song-selection control aren't replicated on the sleeve, your only option for changing songs is to skip ahead and back. So, you may be unable to pick out the perfect psyche-up song before tackling a black diamond slope.
The Amp can be washed by removing its interface module and, of course, the iPod and earbuds -- which snake up to the neckband of the coat via various custom openings.
The Burton Amp costs a hefty $499 (the iPod is sold separately for $299-$499), but music-loving downhill die-hards might be able to justify the price.
This spring, Philips Electronics hopes to continue this textile tech trend by introducing cloth neck lanyards with embedded audio controls similar to those on the Amp jacket. The lanyards will be an accessory for a new line of tiny MP3 players, which plug right into them and dangle on your chest. I tried one on and it seemed comfortable. The volume-adjustment buttons are on the left-hand strap and song-seeking buttons are on the right. A jack for earbuds is near the nape of the neck. The player with lanyard will cost $30 more than a player with normal controls. The lanyard can't be washed because of the earbud port.
Well-Equipped
It's likely there will be more and more of these wearable products with integrated technology. The Pentagon is driving a lot of the research in the field, in a quest for high-tech uniforms for its digitally equipped troops.
Before you stuff one more gadget into your pocket, you might consider trying one of these garments. Some of them border on the geeky, but they might also make using your gadgets more convenient and comfortable.
-- With reporting by Katherine Boehret
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