Still Making Activities Rather Troublesome

The ‘i” prefixed word – imac, iPhone, ipad, i-vacuum, i-cooker, i-cook, i-wash, all the i-apps, i-stress, i-pening, i-pengsan, the list goes on. Almost everything had the “i” to it. Apple was the company that started this very trendy and ultra-successful idea with their imac, iPhone, ipad,, products. This has to be one of the best marketing creations, ever.

The new word, “SMART” is in hyper-drive. It may have been around since the beginning of time or time memorial but it has not received this kind of prominence as it is getting currently, besides the phrase “smart alec”. It seems to have over-taken the prefix letter “i” in prominence.

You may have heard of the “SMART’ car brand – a collaboration between the well-know, colourful, trendy Swiss watchmaker “Swatch”, and the no-need-for-long-introduction, three-pointed star vehicle manufacturer, Mercedes-Benz. Mercedes- Benz is Mercedes-Benz. This partnership with Swatch may have been to shed it’s old (elderly?) aged person image; that a successful, top-of-the-ladder person who owned a Mercedes; is old in age and most likely to be chauffeur-driven. Their designs of the 1970’s to the 1990s were rather boxy. This partnership worked as we can see the brand is more geared for the self-driven, younger person today. Their current designs is also trend-setting.

Coming back to the word “Smart”, not the brand, SMART. Welcome to the world of “Smart clothes”.

Would you like to know When you bought the shirt or pants or jeans or dress that you are wearing now? How much did you pay for it? When was the last time you wore this shirt, pants, jeans or dress? How long on that day did you have it on? To what occasion? What matching clothes and accessories you wore with it?

Can the colors change? Or the pattern? What about its design?

How about expanding its size with a perfect fit in tandem with your size if you put on weight? Here, we are not talking about the clothes stretching out of it’s actual size (Can you picture the buttons about to pop off from its stitched on threads? Worse still, the threads are over-stretched at the joints of the fabric) Or the opposite – by reducing in size if you have lost weight. The whole idea is that your favorite will always be with you.

When was the last time you sent it to the laundry? Can it tell you if a thread sewn on the button, is coming undone or wearing out? Or a certain part of the shirt is beginning to fray?

Can it self repair?

Is it time to sell it? Trade it in? Who is in the business of buying clothes for recycling will offer top dollar or trade-in for a new set of threads? Drop off for recycle in replacement of a new garment?

Can you imagine that each fibre is electrically charged, the amount of electricity going though the garment being so miniscule. This “electricity” is from the air all around us, with green living in mind.

Is this technology in the distant future? No, it is just around the corner. Possibly closer than we may think. Imagine having a whole wardrobe of clothes. Imagine answering all the above questions and trying to keep track with all this info (overload?) which would need to be updated in real time. You would think of having another app on your already “burgeoning”, bursting-at-its-seams, over-app installed, “too-smart-for-its-boots, alec” smartphone. Well, ye-e-e-s-s-s. You most probably won’t need to carry half this info on your smartphone. Let’s say your closet has a scanning device that does it for you and copies the information to your smartphone, where it may reside in a background file.

A tech-clothing malfunction? That is something to think about, isn’t it.

All content and ideas other than brand names and their products in this article are owned by me.