Despina Papadopoulos

Twenty odd years trending and still we have few (if any) examples of truly integrated wearable technology examples that have reached market scalability. Most examples of wearable technology are akin to a “cottage-industry”– handmade, bespoke and expressive, more couture than ready-to-wear, reminiscent of the pre-industrial revolution methods of production for textiles and clothing.

The challenges we had 20 years ago remain largely the same despite growing market interest in the area. But with new developments in rapid prototyping and e-textiles we are in a much better place today to address some of the major roadblocks in taking wearable technologies to scale and disrupting the current manufacturing infrastructure.