Wearable technology describes clothing and accessories incorporating computer and advanced electronic technology.Brilliant Noise carried out desk research and used data supplied by
Brandwatch to look at recent conversations about wearable technologies, with a focus on
smart clothing/apparel. Below are some observations, notable products and our findings as a slide deck.
Observations
- Google searches for ‘wearable technology’ have increased five-fold since January 2013. Whether this reflects growing consumer interest or industry hype is, of course, debatable.
- With a 146% increase in online discussions about wearable technology, iWatch was the most talked about product, closely followed by Google Glass, and Fitbit.
- 77% of the conversation about smart clothing/apparel currently comes from men, and 68% comes from the US.
- Whilst there is a lot of excitement and aspirational talk around the upcoming iWatch and limited-access Google Glass, ownership of fitness tracker wrist-bands such as Fitbit and Pebble are becoming commonplace amongst affluent modern city-dwellers. 32% of US adults have or plan to purchase wearable tech within two years. Nearly 61% of the current wearable tech market is sports and activity trackers.
- Tech embedded into clothing itself is seen to offer a more ubiquitous experience than separate sports monitoring accessories, potentially making the latter obsolete.
- Innovations in high-tech fabric and wearable tech clothing specifically are much earlier in the ‘hype cycle’ than currently popular wrist-worn health data trackers. As such, their price will need to reduce significantly before they are an option for most consumers.
- Consumers are not yet as interested in tech-sensitive clothing in comparison to sensor enabled wrist-wear, but this could be due to a lack of awareness of available products in the clothing category.
- In 2015, the smart clothing worldwide market revenue is projected to be worth $1.24bn.1.24M shipments of smart clothing are expected worldwide.
- Smart clothing is likely to be used not only for health/wellness tracking, but for industrial, military and infotainment purposes.
Notable wearable technology apparel products
- Electric foxy: Moveis a technology garment that guides you toward optimal performance and precision in movement. Move analyses and assesses your movements the moment you perform them.
- TZUKURI embedded custom designed beacons into their glasses, so that your iPhone will alert you if you leave them behind and the app can show you where you left them. http://www.tzukuri.com/
- Cityzen: Smart textiles are embedded with micro-sensors enabling them to monitor temperature, heart rate, speed and acceleration as well as to geolocalise.
- Rest Devices: Mimo monitors baby’s vitals and analyses the data for parents so they can rest easy. http://intel.ly/1p8IYwp
- Hexoskin: Wearable body metrics give you insights about your physical training, sleep, and personal daily activities. http://www.hexoskin.com/
- Modwells: Personal modules for wellness. “Mods,” a set of wearable sensors that collect and assess health data. Using feedback and alerts, data helps us manage our health, which we can then share with healthcare professionals.
Slides
This report focuses on smart apparel. Brilliant Noise and Brandwatch have published a broader report about wearable technology conversation as a whole which can be viewed
here.
Image credit: Keoni Cabral
