2016 Megatrend: “Intelligent” Wear adds value to apparel

The word "wearing" is becoming obsolete. Now, as long as the wearable technology is mentioned, it will be described with more streamlined buzzwords, smart bracelets, smart watches, smart rings and so on. According to industrial analysis, in the near future, wearables will be described directly by "clothing."

Facts and data

According to a MarketResearch.com survey, 26 million smart garments are expected to be shipped in 2016. More and more companies are beginning to produce smart clothing, technology has become more stable, no longer easy to fail, and people are more concerned about technology content year after year; all factors have driven market share growth. However, the biggest reason may be the consumer's willingness to wear a watch, because not everyone likes to wear a watch or a bracelet, but everyone wears clothes, and this is the trend that apparel manufacturers and technology companies look forward to. The garment industry produces 19 billion garments a year, 150 times the output of mobile phones, and it is of course the future goal pursued by many manufacturers.

Smart sportswear

Market size

At present, the sports industry is the mainstay of smart clothing productivity, and many of the smart technologies used in clothing are wearable fitness equipment. Fashion companies are also trying to break into the market. For example, Ralph Lauren's smart tennis shirt and Tommy Hilfiger launch solar jackets, but this year's innovative fabrics and sensors will accelerate development.

Ralph Lauren

Tommy Hilfiger

Smart fabric: Project Jacquard

In June 2015, Google announced two new projects, Project Soli and Project Jacquard, aimed at reshaping touch gestures and developing smart textiles. The Soli project wants to apply touchscreen, click and swipe to the way we control the phone to other things. To this end, Google has developed a number of small radar sensors that respond to hand movements. For Project Jacquard, Google developed conductive yarns that made it possible for woven fabrics to respond to touch and gestures. According to Google, the sensor grid can also be woven into the fabric to create a large interactive interface.

Project Jacquard

Smart clothing

At the 2016 CES show, Samsung smart clothing attracted attention. Samsung smart suits send “Do Not Disturb” messages to colleagues when they are not wearing them. The Samsung Smart Belt is able to identify an individual's waistline and record the number of steps taken each day. If the wearer's calorie intake per day is reached, a message will be sent to the user. Digitsole smart shoes can record the wear of shoes, automatically close to the wearer's ankles, and wear heating.

Digitsole

Samsung

Apparel manufacturers and designers want to incorporate smart clothing into their design collections by first deciding which features can add value to the garment. For companies that don't have a technical team, it's the best choice to find a strategic partner with a technical team. This is the easiest solution for producing software such as sensors and fabrics.