In a collaboration with British fashion designer Adrien Sauvage and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), these soon to be released pants will keep your smartphone charged.
When you think of wearable technology the smartwatch and Google Glass immediately spring to mind for many but that doesn’t mean that the world won’t see myriad other offerings in the months and years to come.
The fashion designer Adrien Sauvage began working on his “charging chinos” about six months ago following his frustration with always having a low battery on his phone. “My phone is always dying so I was super interested in the idea,” he said.
Charging pants’ prototypes to be modeled tonight
While production has yet to begin, the prototypes will be strutting down the runway in Bloomsbury this evening as part of the designer’s spring/summer collection.
Sauvage began his fashion label in 2010 and has enjoyed a following from a number of celebrity clients including: Jude Law, Terry Gilliam and Dwayne Wade. Wade’s work as a brand ambassador is no mistake as Sauvage, who has no formal training as a designer, played professional basketball in his teens and represented Great Britain at an international level.
While I prefer “charging chinos,” Sauvage describes his creation that incorporates a wireless charging plate from the Nokia DC-50 into one of the front pockets as “wearable chinos.” Are there unwearable chinos?
The collaboration with Microsoft came as a result of Mr. Sauvage’s “function over form” approach rather than the familiar high fashion his customers seek. “This is one of the reasons for the collaboration,” he said. “We’re so far away from that kind of design.”
Wow, that’s hot
The biggest problem he encountered was heat distribution and required quite a bit of “trail and error.” “Having something that you could wear without the technology feeling cumbersome was a challenge. It was also difficult to distribute the heat so that the wearer wouldn’t feel like they were in a sauna.”
While Sauvage was finally able to solve this problem making the “charging chinos” machine washable remained elusive though the designer is keen to conquer this in the future.
In recent months, Amazon.com launched a wearable tech store and it will greet the arrival of the pants in to the dedicated Amazon shop.
“We don’t see a mass-market opportunity for wireless-charging trousers,” admitted Adam Johnson, head of marketing for Nokia Devices, which supported the project. “We’re just having a bit of a hack, trying to move the wearable technology concept beyond smart watches. This is a world first.”
“Tech fashion” is on the rise and the designer predicts explosive growth saying, “It’s already happening with sportswear and people use their phones so much that technology like this will be increasingly integrated into clothing,” he said.
