What’s the Secret to Making Wearables That People Actually Want?

I spoke to Wired magazine on wearables… Wired article published on February 24 2014.…

Misfit Wearables launched the Shine, an activity tracker that can be worn almost anywhere on your body. Image: Misfit Wearables

Last September, right around spring/winter Fashion Week, an unexpected group of people gathered for a round table discussion at the main offices of the Council of Fashion Designers of America in New York City. Present was Steven Kolb, the CFDA’s CEO, a few higher-ups from Intel and a handful of CFDA members who also happen to be big names in fashion and accessory design.

Intel had called the meeting to discuss the idea of starting a collaboration between the company and the fashion industry at large, with the ultimate goal of figuring out a way turn their decidedly unwearable technology into something people—fashionable people—might actually want to put on their bodies.

‘Tech companies know what is useful, but do we know how to make something desirable?’

Earlier in the summer, Intel, like most every other big technology company out there, had started a division to explore the future of wearable technology. Best known for supplying the processor chips you find in your computer’s guts, Intel has the technology to build what could eventually be a very smart device. They did not, however, have the design and fashion expertise to create stylish hardware.

“Technology companies know what is useful, but do we know how to make something desirable?” says Ayse Ildeniz, Intel’s vice president of business development and strategy for new devices. “We have thousands of hardware and software engineers looking at sensors, voice activation and how to build smart devices, but we wanted to create a platform where they can meet with the aesthetic gurus. There needs to be an alignment and discussion, so breakthroughs can actually come about and flourish.”

Enter the Hipsters

During CES this year, Intel announced the formalization of its partnership with the CFDA, Barney’s and Opening Ceremony, an ultra-hip fashion company tasked with designing the first wearable product to be born from the collaboration. If that wasn’t proof enough that Intel was taking wearables seriously, the company also announced its Make It Wearable competition, which will award $1.3 million in prize money ($500,000 for the grand prize) for whoever who comes up with the most promising design in wearable tech this year. Those are some pretty good incentives.

Netatmo’s June is a UV tracker that takes the form of a jewel designed by French jewelry designer Camille Toupet. It syncs up with your smartphone to help keep track of your skin health. 

Image: Nettatmo

We’ve only recently begun to see technology and fashion take each other seriously. A few months ago, Apple hired Angela Ahrendts, Burberry’s former CEO, and before that they poached Paul Deneve, Yves Saint Laurent’s CEO. Given the optimistic projections for wearable tech’s influence, the union between these two worlds seems inevitable. If wearable technology makers have learned one thing so far, it’s that just because you make something, it doesn’t mean people are actually going to wear it. Adoption of wearable tech depends on striking a delicate balance between style and functionality, and no one has leveled that see-saw quite yet. And the fashion crowd, as progressive as they are, have never been trained to think through the rigors of product design, ranging from use cases to demographics.

“Products are often made with good intentions, but in a vacuum,” says Kolb. “You have programming people thinking about wearable technology but not necessarily, and I don’t mean this with disrespect, thinking about the aesthetic. Then you’ve got fashion people who are very much focused on the overall look but don’t have the technological language or vocabulary.”

Kolb explains that oftentimes, fashion people have a sci-fi understanding of what technology can do. On the flip side, technologists and even industrial designers have a difficult time grasping what it means to create something people feel good wearing. “Fashion designers are always thinking about things like, how does that clasp close, how does this leather feel?” he says. “That element might not necessarily be on the radar of a tech person, but it’s definitely on the radar of a fashion person.”

Image: Misfit Wearables

Up to this point, technology companies have approached wearables with a one-size-fits-all mentality. Even Google Glass’ Titanium Collection, while certainly more stylish than the original, hasn’t gotten it quite right. A choice of frames that say, “I write code and like to shop” is a start, but in order for people to really want to wear Glass, we have to be able to seamlessly integrate them into our own very personal style. We have to feel like we’ve had more of a choice in the matter.

The Missing Link: Modularity

“I think fashion and accessory brands in the near future will make glasses that work with Glass in the same way we have accessories and covers for our mobile phones,” explains Syuzi Pakhchyan, accessories lead at Misfit Wearables. “The key here is to design technology that can be modular and allow others to develop an ecosystem of products that work with your technology.”

Misfit is the maker of the Shine, a pretty, smoothed-over disc that acts as an activity tracker. As far as wearable tech goes, the Shine is actually quite lovely. Misfit’s offering is part of an increasing number of wearables that make an honest effort to look good. There are others like Netatmo’s June, a UV tracker disguised as a sparkling rhinestone that can be worn as a broach or on a leather band around a wrist, and the collaboration between Cellini and CSR to create a Bluetooth-enabled pendant.

Working Together Earlier

The intentions are good, but they all fall a little short, as though the styling was a last minute gloss instead of baked into the actual product. In order for wearables to feel authentically cool, fashion and technology need to begin working together from the earliest moments of product development, discussing what current technology enables and having an an open-minded conversation about how it could be worn.

‘Products are often made with good intentions, but in a vacuum,’ says Kolb.

As Pakhchyan points out, much like our clothes, not everyone wants or needs to wear the same piece of technology, and we don’t necessarily have to wear it all the time either. Tech companies have been chasing the elusive silver bullet smartwatch, but maybe it’s not such a bad thing to treat wearables like the other wearables in our life: As separate, individually-valuable pieces of clothing that can work together to ultimately create the perfect outfit. Staying focused, at least while we’re figuring out what form and functionality works and what doesn’t, might not be such a bad thing.

Right now, the collaboration between Intel and the CFDA is just getting started. How it will shape up depends on what each organization is trying to achieve. But at least by beginning to build a real bridge between the fashion and technology worlds, we’re opening up discussion about how these industries can benefit each other, which hopefully will lead to some great innovations.

For what it’s worth, Pakhchyan figures it’s only a matter of time before the parallel paths of technology and fashion intersect for good. And when they do? We’ll probably be seeing a lot more people actually wearing wearables. “I think we’re going to see a lot more beautiful and interesting wearables coming out in the next few years,” she says. “I have a feeling we’re going to look back at these plastic wrist-worn things and be like, ‘Oh, that was kind of an awkward stage.’”