Alex J. Tunney lets us know what he thinks investors are missing in the future of wearable tech on AlleyWatch:
Listening to “The Shoe Must Go On” episode (#039) of the Fashion Is Your Business podcast, it was satisfying to hear Dawn Dickson, CEO of Flat Out Of Heels, express her frustration explaining to VCs about why her business is important. Essentially, she believes that many investors are looking for “billion dollar apps” instead of investing in businesses that are solving problems that a lot of people have.
She joins a number of people unimpressed with fashion tech and wearables being limited to apps and gadgets and gizmos straight out of The Jetsons. I think of Johanna King-Slutsky’s article, “Wonder and Control” piece over at The Awlwitch calls out the Apple Watch as being an expensive gizmo or toy. I also think of Liza Kindred of Third Wave Fashion who got me along a similar line of thinking with multiple podcasts and videos about the topic. As a society, we draw parallels between wearables and things we see in sci-fi movies, TV and comics. This leads to products being made that are clunky and arguably unfashionable.
Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!