London – “How far away is the tipping point of wearables?” asked Eric
Migicovsky, CEO of Pebble, the first commercialized smartwatch to hit the
market during the , the world’s largest tech conference
in Dublin. “I think that we are close when it comes to size, price and
technology. But we are still fighting the battle every day from 2 fronts.”
The battle Migicovsky describes faced by the smartwatch market is the same
problem other wearables have been facing since they first began launching
on the market. “One, consumers want something that is exciting, but at the
same time functional that you always want to wear and will use,” continued
Migicovsky. “Two, apps function differently on smartwatch than mobile
phone. So the question is how will people interact with with apps on a
watch?” Or, in other words – how will people interact with new technologies
on their bodies? During the first ever Fashion Summit, which took place as
part of the Web Summit in Thursday, numerous experts from the fashion and
technology industry came together to discuss fashion and wearable
technology.
Although wearables have long been hailed as the future of fashion, usually
defined as technology that you can wear on your body in the form of a ,
, item of
or
, the majority of consumers have been
rather slow in embracing them. “In fact, one in three people think
wearables make you look ridiculous and 75 percent of the population think
that most wearables are unnecessary,” said Matthew Drinkwater, head of the
fashion innovation agency at the London College of Fashion. However, in
spite of slow response to wearables, most speakers at the first ever
Fashion Summit, held within the Web Summit, expect to see the market for
wearables pick up over the next 5 to 10 years. But what should fashion
companies and tech companies, as well as startups be looking for when it
comes to developing wearables?
“The market for people who want to look like androids is small and
wearables are not beautiful,” points out Liza Kindred, founder of global
fashion tech think tank, Third Wave Fashion. “When you go to the store and
you look at an object you like you don’t tend to ask what does it do?”
Matthew Drinkwater, head of fashion innovation agency at the London College
of Fashion, agrees with Kindred and goes one step further – “Fashion and
Tech are two polar opposite industries,” he warns. Drinkwater believes that
in order for the two industries to sync up, the technology behind the
wearable needs to elicit an emotional response within its wearer. “With
fashion you fall in love with it, it’s an emotional response to something.
Most people don’t buy fashion for its technicality, so you have to make it
look great.”
“The problem with wearables at the moment is that they do not capture our
imagination yet,” noted Fabio Piras, Course Director for MA Fashion at
Central Saint Martins. Without having the right aesthetics to tap into the
consumers sensibility, the lack of interest in wearables is likely to hold
steady-fast with the early adopters and techies. Liz Bacelar, founder of , the global event series which
brings together fashion, beauty and retail industries with emerging
technological companies, questioned the current lack of authenticity in the
tech world for wearables without designers playing a hand. “The product
will not look the part without a designers touch, so having it incorporated
from the start will help them get the right taste level/style,” stressed
Burak Cakmak, Dean of Fashion at Parsons The New School for Design.
However even if the design is right, there are still other aspects to
wearables that both the fashion industry and tech industry should bear in
mind. “[They should] ask would I wear this? Even if it stops functioning
and breaks, would I still wear this because I love it? Would I take the
time and care to charge it?,” pointed out Kindred, touching on another
issue within the wearables space – charging. Although most people are
willing to charge their mobile phone once a day – if not more, the majority
are not interested in having to charge multiple smart devices per day.
“Wearables and smartwatches are given bad names due to the inconvenience of
recharging. It needs to reach a point where it’s convenient, fashionable
and beautiful,” summarised Cedric Hutchings, CEO of Withings.
“We need to be challenging tech companies to develop new interconnective
ways that are flexible, waterproof and beautiful – think modulated,” said
Myriam Joire, VP of Developer Relations at CleverTap. Migicovsky agrees
that wearables should be able to perform several functions to help simplify
daily lives, rather than just one simple task such as tracking steps or a
heart monitor. “The idea of a wearable doing just one thing is a bit odd –
look at the smartphone. We have to think about the risks associated with
cognitive overload by using several different devices that just do one
singular thing,” he warned. “The reason why the Internet and smartphones
took off is exactly because they enhance daily lives in so many ways.”
But apart from being beautiful, being able to do several different tasks
that enhance its wearers lives, what else should a wearable be? Some
experts suggest that wearables also remain invisible, at least their
functionality should not be visible straight away. “We need to take lessons
from where Google Glass failed,” said John Paul, founder and CEO of startup
VenueNext. “One mistake I think they made was adding in the camera because
it made it less socially acceptable. But I think it will come back in a
much more personal and beautiful way.” Philip Moynagh, Vice President of
the Internet of Things Group at Intel Corporation agrees with Paul, adding:
“Invisible wearable tech will become a big thing in the future, it should
be hidden or integrated within the object.”
Invisible or not, fashionable or not, convenient or not, it’s clear that
the future of wearables has a long way to go. But enthusiasts like
Migicovsky are convinced things can only go up for the marker-mash up.
“It’s still early in the days of wearables, but it looks promising.”