Pus​hing Textiles  Forward through technology-

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​Anti-Bacterial and Anti-Fungal Fabrics using Copper

  • INSTABEAT - heart monitor with color coded LEDs in corner of goggle.  Blue indicates a normal heartrate, green indicates optimal exercise beat and red indicates too high a beat.
  • ON COURSE - Look at your destination, touch one button to enter course.  Green LED in goggle indicates on course, yellow in one eye or other indicates you need to move in opposite direction, red if you're not adjusting correctly.

WT SF Conference took place this July 12th and 13th at Fort Mason tucked between Golden Gate Park and Ghirardelli Square, in the Festival Pavilion within site of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz.  With 42 exhibitors, 25 speakers and 23 demo pitchers the opportunity to expand ones' knowledge of the WT field was enormous.


Products for health monitoring, sports performance monitoring, body cameras, smart bikes, smart watches, and  smart glasses are examples of the innovation represented at the WT Conference.  Of special note was #TAP (www.tapwithus.com) a blue tooth wearable keyboard that allows you to key on any surface by using finger taps.  A soft foam, sensor embedded wearable slips comfortably on ones' fingers and allows you to tap out text on any surface.  We demo'd the device by playing a game that teaches you the code representing the alphabet.  For example,  your index finger and middle finger together are "A", middle finger and ring finger are "B" and ring finger and pinky are "C".  It was really fun.


Components such as sensors, flex screens, batteries, printed circuitry, conductive threads, and LEDs were on view as well.  Aracon, a high strength conductive fiber made by Micro-Coax was originally designed for use in space is well suited for smart textiles. 


Services such as R&D, sourcing, and software engineering were represented by businesses like FLEX, Li and Fung and SAP.


Speaker Russel Okung of the Denver Broncos when asked about the key attributes of platform versus product and what could use improvement he expressed the need for a singular platform to process data from a watch, smart shoe soles and garments.


The conference was thoroughly enjoyable, the food was wonderful, the location spectacular and the participants were excited and well versed in their area of expertise.

Pet and dog fur watches are being offered , see blue button.  The watch uses 2-4 oz of your pets fur sent in an airtight bag.  Fur is hand crafted into a felted wool, which is heat formed to a leather watch band and metal watch body shell. With a hydrophobic coating, the timepiece will remain soft, yet stay clean and water resistant.  The CPSIA bans cat or dog fur where cat or dog fur is defined as cat or dog skin or pelt.

Conductive gloves knitted with stainless steel allow you to use your touch screen devices and keep warm!  Gloves pictured were developed by www.aiqsmartclothing.com 

Sync Footwear by H&Y International Technology, Inc. flash brightly colored lights in sync with your music.  Programmable through an app on your phone or by push button in shoe.  Rechargeable battery with USB in shoe.  syncfootwear.com


Outdoor Industries Women's Coalition Southern California Regional Event was held 7/21/16 at the Argon Office in West LA.  The keynote speaker Laura Jenks of Argon spoke of six important leadership qualities:  Show up, Read, Be Likeable, Be Candid and People First.


     Metalizing is a very thin coating of aluminum vapor deposited on the backside of the film causing it to become mirror like.  This coating can be 100% coverage which maximizes the reflective quality.  The coating can also be partial( referred to as a percentage of coating) resulting in a transparent, smokey film.

     PET (polyester) films are 1/2 mil to 3/4 mil. thickeness.   The embossed, metalized film is then laminated to a substrate of taffeta, tricot or velcro as per the photo of the stars above.

Australian firm develops "shark-proof" wetsuits

    Holographic fabric is where science meets fashion for a bright, fun, sparkle effect.  The      hologram is created by embossing very thin sheets of clear polyester film or foil.  The


​DAZZLING HOLOGRAPHIC STARS

embossing creates microscopic grooves on the surface of the clear film.  The arrangement of these grooves creates a holographic image. The clear film is then metalized with an aluminum coating (a silver coating) to further enhance the hologram's reflective qualities.  The metalizing acts like a mirror to reflect the light.  Light passes through the embossed, clear polyester film and separates it, resulting in an array of the full color spectrum.  The theory is similar to a rainbow where rays of sun, at certain angles, pass through raindrops diffracting the light, resulting in the division of white light into bands of color.  The diffracted light is then reflected by the highly polished metalized coating.

​Wearable Technologies Conference San Francisco July 12-13, 2016

Cupron (www.cupron.com) has developed copper-infused fabric using copper which has been used since Egyptian times for medicinal and cosmetic purposes.  Copper-infused medical linens and hard surfaces used at Sentara Leigh Hospital were shown to reduce hospital-acquired infection rates by 83% (https://www.sentara.com/hampton-roads-virginia/aboutus/news/copper-clinical-trial.aspx).  Up to 90,000 people die a year from hospital-acquired infections.  The copper ions released from Cupron’s technology damage microbe cell walls, microbial RNA and DNA and microbial protein.  Cupron’s fabric uses EPA registered antimicrobials, and Cupron holds 4 public health EPA registrations including registrations to kill athlete's foot fungus on their registered textiles by more than 99.9% after 12 hours of contact.  Copper-infused textiles are a wonderful example of ancient knowledge, present-day chemistry, and textile technology at work.  You can buy the product at a variety of retailers, see their website for more detail here.

Camouflage and stripe printed suits are intended to trick the shark visually. 


Lt. Weight Chainmail ​offers extra protection from shark attacks.


Electro-magnetic suits uses conductive carbon fibers in fabric that trap and conceal your naturally-occurring electric signal output that many marine animals can detect and react to.


 

Waterproof Swimables!

  • ​FINIS - lose the earbuds this device delivers music through your cheekbones to your ears using Bone Conduction Technology

Cat Fur Watches