The video above shows just one of the projects featured in Patch O’Fur’s detailed and interesting article about the future of fursuiting and tech-enabled smart suits. Check out the full piece on Dogpatch Press.

Here’s a fun feature about the future. But first, let me make a bold claim about fursuiting.

Mascots and costuming have been around forever. But furries are doing something new. They don’t just play with generic icons from myths and media. They add original fursonas and custom craft for everyone. It makes a subculture with personal expression beyond anything else.

Of course, many furs don’t have (or want) fursuits. But the ones who do make a photogenic face of fandom. Other groups do art and writing like this one, but I don’t think anyone else does costuming in such a specialized and devoted way. So there’s nothing wrong with the way the fursuiters stand out. Everything else is imagination – they bring it to life and help to define the tactile name of “furry”. And the quality is developing beyond anything you can buy commercially. Some dedicated makers now have careers by fans, for fans, leading a Furry Economy with an exciting future. Look forward to amazing things…

…There’s a science fiction future for wearable tech. If you like reading or writing about it, here it is in the fur. Think of tiny wearable computers and novel fabric embedded with electronics. Imagine it programmed to interact with users, respond on the fly or adjust to the environment. Furries can be a branch for this (or even a root.) They’re super “suited” for immersive full-body tactile role-play, sci-fi/fantasy based design, and original/custom characters that are fully inhuman.

You won’t go some place to see them… they’ll be among us. An anthro dog’s hackles rise when a cat comes near. A sound enhanced cat purrs when you scritch her belly. A chameleon’s skin blends into the background. Everyone has animated eyes and expressions. Could real hybrids sneak in undercover?

It’s becoming possible with servo motors used in animatronics, and tiny sound and light devices. There’s 3D printing, programmable controllers like Arduino and Rasberry Pi, and developments for mobile applications and the “internet of things”. There’s biofeedback sensors beyond anything you’ve seen yet, envisioned by the Biohacking and Neurohacking movements

Read more.

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!