Ralph Lauren to Intel to Google: New breed of wearables buddy up with luxury fashion labels

Luxury fashion is making in-roads in wearable tech as more designers try their hands at developing smart, stylish accessories and clothing aimed at tracking performance and health, or simply making connected lives easier to manage. A good example of this is DvF’s tie-up with Google for Google Glass.  

Luxury brand Ralph Lauren plans to unveil its high-performance smart compression shirt, the Polo Tech, at the start of the US Open tennis Grand Slam. The shirt features sensors knitted into the product to read biological and physiological information. The company apparently took in feedback from players and ball boys during practice sessions and plans to begin selling the shirt this spring. The Ralph Lauren Polo Tech shirt was developed with proprietary technology from OMsignal, that specialises in neuroscience, sports medicine and engineering. With their technology, the shirt acts as the sensor and delivers a wide variety of physiological data directly to the users via an app on their smartphone.

Hewlett-Packard called on designer Michael Bastian and online retailer Gilt to develop a high-design smart watch that is Android and iOS compatible, allowing a user to take in notifications for email, text and calls, and to manage music and apps. It reportedly, could hit the market this fall. Tory Burch has partnered with Fitbit for accessories she designed exclusively for use with the fitness brand’s Flex, including a brass pendant and bracelet, and patterned silicone wristbands.

Does the geek side of the equation need the luxury fashion side?

It’s the hope of Ralph Lauren that Polo Tech will resonate with the fit and the trying-to-get-fit. Data collected by the shirt is stored by a ‘black box,’ which also is enabled with ways to capture movement and direction. The black box transmits data, including stress levels and energy output, into the cloud for display on a tablet or smartphones. The luxury brand is hoping to take the technology to help customers live happier and healthier lives.

Football helmets can measure impact and tennis rackets can tell how hard you — or Roger Federer — hit the ball, and how good his — and your — backhand are in real time. “We’re going to take our time with it now, and we’re going to learn,” Lauren said. “Our goal is to introduce this technology into a variety of different kinds of shirts over the next year.”

Fashion also has Intel’s ear. The chip company is collaborating with the design cooperative Opening Ceremony, the Council of Fashion Designers of America and luxury retailer Barneys to find new ways for technology developers and fashion designers to work more closely on wearables.

The first item up is a luxury smart bracelet to be sold at Barneys New York. The idea is to draw other designers in as well. An update on the bracelet will come in the next few weeks, said Humberto Leon, who founded Opening Ceremony. “Through this relationship, we have truly pushed boundaries of wearable technology by converging fashion and tech,” he said in an email.

Misfit’s Shine, a waterproof aluminum orb that comes in nine colors, has been on the market for a year. It sells in big-box stores that include Best Buy and Target, in Apple stores and on Amazon, along with numerous other outlets around the world, said spokeswoman Amy Puliafito. It retails for $99, with accessories that include a more formal necklace that costs an additional $79.

In September, the device will make an appearance on the New York Fashion Week runway of Chromat and its designer Becca McCharen. She’s a former urban planner known for structural exoskeletons worn by Beyonce, Nicki Minaj and Madonna. “Knowing your pulse, your wellness level and your activity level should be something that isn’t a burden, isn’t something that people don’t look forward to, so having something beautiful makes it way more fun and way more enjoyable for the consumer,” Puliafito said.

Adam Roth, the CFDA’s director of strategic partnerships, is the fashion trade group’s point person on the Intel collaboration. He also helped with a recent roundtable where Intel designers sat down with about 70 fashion designers to exchange ideas.

“There are so many wearable products coming out,” Roth said. “Not every one is useful but may look beautiful. Not every one is beautiful but is really useful. We’re getting to the sweet spot, where it’s both.”

With inputs from Associated Press