Fashion tech usually leans towards the gimmicky, but an Italian company is hoping that vibrating jeans take smart clothes out of the gym and into the real world. Instead of just measuring metrics like your heart rate, calories burned, and your sleep patterns — which are all well and good, don't get us wrong — Spinali Design's Essential smart jeans, which debuted at CES last week, integrate GPS technology so you don't have to look at your phone if you're following turn-by-turn directions.
Mashable reports that by connecting to your smartphone via Bluetooth, the jeans' built-in vibrating modules can indicate if you're supposed to turn left or right when you're at an intersection. This way, you don't have to have your phone in hand when you're walking and it can still guide you when it's on its lock screen, saving your phone's battery life. Need to make a left turn? You'll get a little buzz in your left pocket. Same for the right. Naturally, your jeans will let you know if you get a call or a text, too.
As for the jeans themselves, they're not rechargeable, but T3 states that Spinali Designs claims each pair has enough juice to guide you once a week for four years. The designers developed the tech so that people could stop looking down at their phones and appreciate the world around them. After all, you're more likely to be using GPS when you're on vacation and you don't want to miss all the sights and sounds because you're focused on navigation. Priced between $76 and $109, these skinnies don't even cost that much more than your standard jeans. This isn't Spinali Design's first foray into fashion tech, either. The company has also developed a swimsuit that tells you when you need to reapply your SPF and a dress that illuminates when you get a phone call or message.
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