Plug *ny Play: These clothes are hot-wired for fun.
Wear Your Computer
By Wendy Marinaccio
Life of the Party
Get a great party outfit at ClubThings.
You’ll light up the darkness in a shirt with
animated lights—choose from an attention
grabbing UFO, heart, star, alien, butterfly or
other designs. These “e-shirts” come in
black, sizes small to XXL and even in baby
Ts, for $32.95. And don’t forget that all
those flashing lights need four AAA batter
ies. (clubthings.com)
Made for Walking
These boots
from the Electric
Shoe Company
take all that hard
. work from walking
and turn it into
something use
’ ful—about 100
megawatts of power. When your heel hits
the ground it produces a current, which is
saved in the shoe. You can use the stored
electricity to power cell phones or other
portable gadgets. You can’t buy these
boots at Macy’s, but they're on their way to
being commercially available—they were
tested over the summer with a 120-kilome
ter hike through the desert in Namibia.
(theelectricshoeco.com)
Don't Rent a Movie
Get a jacket with a wearable computer
on it—that everyone can see except you. A
leather jacket created by MIT grad Stephan
Fitch plays streaming video and comes com
plete with a Windows computer, LCD screen
and wireless Net connection. A 233 MHz
Pentium III processor and 1 GB hard drive
are also included. The jacket was commis
sioned by MSN to play ads for its service,
and was also used in New York City to show
Gladiator trailers when the movie debuted.
Gadgets Galore
If you're a sucker for gadgets you’re
going to want to buy the modern interpreta
tion of the classic Levi's jacket. This one has
a built-in cell phone, portable MP3 player
and universal remote control to
work them all. The MP3 play
er will turn off when a call
comes in, and you just
have to speak into
your collar when you
talk on the voice
activated cell
phone. Better yet—
the buttons are vol
ume controls. Made
by Levi Strauss and
Italian designer
Massimo Osti and
equipped with
Philips Electronics
gadgets, the digital
jacket is only avail
able in Europe
right now—but
that’ll give you time to save up the $900 to
buy one.
Connected Jeans
A Swiss company
called Skim.com
sells clothes that are
individually tagged
with an ID number.
You can use the
number to get an
email address and
interact on the Skim
web site with others
who may have similar fashion taste and
interests. The price for finding like-minded
fashion mavens on the web? Jeans run
about $100, and their line of shirts, bags,
shoes and accessories will set you back any
where from $49 to $150.
k
Not the Ga
Clothing company ZoZa was founded by
the creators of Banana Republic (now mil
lionaires after selling it to the Gap). Its
line of “urban performance clothing” is
sold online and in “walk-in web sites,”
which include one set of ZoZa’s offerings
that you can try on, but then order from an
in-store computer. ZoZa clothes are made
out of breathable fabrics and Velcro, with
compartments for cell phones and PDAs
sewn in. Basically it’s designer clothing,
except functional—and you can put it in
the washing machine. (ZoZa.com) •
CyberTailors
Custom-made clothes at IC3D.com
Everyone knows that trauma of shopping
for jeans. After hours under fluorescent
lighting, you look down at a mountain of
rejects and realize you’re never going to be
able to find the perfect pair of jeans, the
ones that fit you just right, with the
pockets you like and the exact JW
shade of denim you’ want.
Enter IC3D.com
IC3D.corn's unique web site
lets you build your own pair of
jeans—or skirt, handbag, T-shirt
and other articles ot clothing. Through
a complex, but surprisingly easy-to-follow
system of menu choices that let you pick
everything down to the color of thread
and the type of rivets you want, you can
design that perfect pair of jeans—all for
about $65.
Peter Del Rio and a former partner with
a background in fashion founded the web
site in New York City in 1996. The pair
wanted to create a niche market for
consumers, said Del Rio. “We
believe the real B to C is business
es dealing one-on-one with the
consumer, allowing them to create
heir own unique product.”
Behind the Scenes with IC3D.com
STS: What do you think the future of clothes
shopping is going to be?
Del Rio: Shopping is going to come closer
to entertainment. You will be able to con
figure clothes online similar to the way Dell
does with computers.
STS: What's your most popular service?
Del Rio: Jeans is our most popular service.
We have over 300 different fabrics to
choose from. The CopyCat (that allows
consumers to send in an old pair of jeans
and have them copied) service is slightly
under 50 percent of first orders.
STS: Where are your clothes made?
Del Rio: All of our clothes are made by
union workers in New York. •