What is the current status of smart clothing called the trillions of vents?

The smart apparel industry is a challenge for both technology companies and traditional apparel companies.

In recent years, the wave of smart wearable devices has spread from bracelets and watches to the clothing market. Many industry insiders believe that in 2016, the development and sales of smart clothing will enter a new development fast lane, and its light will also cover Wearable objects such as smart watches and smart glasses have become the representatives of a new round of development in the field of smart wear.

In the face of huge market prospects, many companies have stepped into this field, and various smart costumes have emerged one after another.

So what is the situation of the smart apparel market? For this reason, the reporters of the smart product circle visited a number of smart apparel companies and combed their markets, hoping to give readers a better understanding of the smart apparel market.

Admission players: technology companies and traditional manufacturers show their magic

At present, the enterprises entering the market for smart apparel are mainly divided into two categories: one is a technology enterprise, represented by Google, Samsung, and Shennian Technology. They are more inclined to make breakthroughs in the technical chain of the industry chain, and enhance the experience through advanced technology. market development.

For example, Shennian Technology, heart rate measurement is one of the most anticipated functions of users. To achieve accurate measurement while achieving small size and low power consumption, it requires strong technical strength. Shennian Technology, which is an EEG chip (the EEG signal is one-thousandth of the intensity of the ECG signal), has a long time accumulation in electrode sensing technology, and its advantages in biosensing technology and algorithms are just right. Meet this need.

With this advantage, Shennian Technology released a smart clothing with ECG monitoring in August this year, DynaFeed smart clothing, combined with bio-sensing and conductive nano-fabric, can get heart rate, heart rate recovery index, heart fatigue, Information on heart age, aerobic/anaerobic exercise heart rate guidance.

The other category is traditional clothing brand enterprises. In the view of these clothing companies, traditional clothing and creative smart technology will bring good business opportunities, so they all intend to seek transformation through the exploration of smart clothing.

For example, Lai Shite invested in Zhishang Technology and launched the first intelligent constant temperature garment in August 2015. It can start the heating system at low temperature. After the carbon fiber is energized, it transmits heat by far infrared radiation to keep warm. Control, working hours up to 4 hours.

It is said that the sales volume is good, the crowdfunding is 10,000 pieces, and the sales volume is 10 million. Next, biomagnetic therapy and health care clothing, heart rate vests, etc. will be introduced.

Of course, compared to those hardware manufacturers who have built new technology from scratch, these traditional clothing brands have a huge and loyal user fan base, richer brand market operation experience, and relatively mature distribution channels, regardless of The intensity of communication or penetration is much greater.

Market status: ideal is full, reality is very skinny

Although the huge prospects of smart clothing are favored by the industry, Gartner's report even predicts that smart clothing will jump from a frozen state of nearly zero in 2014 to an estimated 26 million in 2016, becoming a smart wearable shipment. One of the biggest categories.

But for now, the smart clothing industry is not as good as expected. At home and abroad, including Amour, Pea, Anta, NIKE, ADIDAS, LINING, and foreign secrets, there are smart wearable products unveiled, but at present it is mostly a taste, this is also the status quo of the entire smart clothing industry - have introduced conceptual Product, but no follow-up.

Although these traditional clothing companies are aware of the addition of intelligent elements, there is no actual direction.

For example, Hongdou Group's branch in Shenzhen, Red Bean Intelligence, has been involved in smart bras and smart clothing, and has invested tens of millions of funds, but in addition to some intelligent hardware products in the store, it has not found a clear direction in the smart clothing business. .

Chen Lu, CEO of Zhishang Technology, pointed out: "Many traditional clothing companies, including the large bean manufacturing group such as Hongdou Group and Qipai, have realized that adding intelligent elements, but lacking a clear industrial structure, there is no practical direction."

And technology companies are also difficult to obtain sales due to factors such as brand influence, limited user base, and lack of channels.

However, the most critical issue is that the smart clothing industry has just started, whether it is technology or products are not mature. These features alone are not enough to impress consumers.

And even in the most widely used sports health monitoring field, the performance of smart clothing is also very unsatisfactory, because it involves the limitation of the biometric sensor close to the skin, and the displacement measurement caused by the running is not accurate, and the comfort level also affects the smart clothing. user experience.

In addition, such smart clothing needs to be cleaned frequently, but whether it is a sensor or a battery, the waterproofness of these precision devices attached to soft clothes is really worrying.

Although we can improve it by means of waterproof coating, there is currently no solution for large-scale promotion of cost, washing durability and high temperature in washing machines. At the same time, the traditional garment processing process is very mature, and the follow-up package is also a problem.

In addition, the high price of smart clothing is also a major factor hindering market development.

Take Hexoskin as an example, the price of a smart vest is as high as 400 US dollars (about 2,500 yuan), and the intelligent constant temperature clothing launched by the domestic Zhishang Technology is also 1,000 yuan, and the accessories are also expensive.

At the same time, considering that for ordinary consumers, the general clothes are not durable goods, or even need to frequently put new fashion items, which undoubtedly raises the price threshold, so that smart clothes are now more applicable to aerospace military and professional. In special areas such as sports, it is difficult to get a market among ordinary consumers.

In fact, smart clothing needs to really enter the mass market, the first premise is that the price must be cheap enough.

Summary: The future is bright, the road is tortuous

Despite the current difficulties, intelligence is an inevitable trend. Advances in technology will make garments qualitatively changeable, beautiful, clean, intelligent, and so on. People's acceptance of this trend and popularity will make smart clothing become A mainstream choice.

In terms of industry, on the one hand, brand companies must keep up with the intelligent development to increase product selling points and expand the market; on the other hand, small enterprises such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Dongguan, which are mainly foreign trade-oriented, are subject to economic impact, and the demand for transformation is also greatly reduced. . These are the driving forces for the development of smart clothing.

At present, smart clothing is in a preliminary stage of exploration, and no company can fully control this field. Smart clothing still has a lot of room for improvement, both in hardware and in software.

However, the expansion of the field of smart clothing cannot be overnight. This requires enterprises to have the courage to dare to be the first, but also to prepare for a protracted war.

Therefore, smart clothing companies need to actively seek innovative core technologies and applications, so that products have enough "selling points", on the other hand, they need to build a more comfortable user experience around consumer habits.