::: nBlog :::
On Friday I heard unfortunate news that the company Nomojeans had filed for bankruptcy, already a couple of months ago. Nomo’s idea was to provide people with perfectly fitting jeans, utilizing 3D laser scanners in their stores. Technology was quite advanced, based on my brief visit in their Helsinki outlet. “Stop wearing other peoples jeans” was their catchy slogan.
Media cited reasons like unreliable far-east suppliers and long delivery times for the demise. Fortunately I’ll meet their ex-CEO in a couple of weeks – it is always far more interesting and useful to hear about failures than polished success stories. Although I did’t buy a pair from them, I very much liked the idea, given its technology twist.
While the Nomo experiment didn’t fly, I believe that smart clothing is one of the key areas diving into spimes and the Internet-of-Things. Spimed Jeans might even be implemented before our fabled Spime Socks, my favorite example of everyday objects becoming a personalized service.
One of Nomo’s drawbacks, in my opinion, was that the 3D scanned image didn’t live along with the customer. The merchandise was a pair of physical jeans, not an evolutionary fashion statement attached to a whole range of clothing, shareable in Twitter and Facebook.
Long time ago, flying from Sao Paolo to Frankfurt, I happened to meet the founder of Miss Sixty, one of the popular brands in youth fashion. His recipe was simple – “Have Cameron Diaz wear your stuff once and you’re done”. So, who would get excited about high-tech clothing? Natalie Portman has a chemistry degree.. hmm..
//Pasi
