VDC Corporation has send out a press release that gives a summary of last weeks Smart Fabrics 2007 Conference in Washington DC. According to VDC’s analyst Tim Shea, the Smart Fabrics Conference has come a long way since the first wearable technology conference in NYC back in 2001.
 What started in 2001 with an audience of around 50 ‘far-out techies’, university professors/students and ‘cyborgs’ reached at this years Smart Fabrics an attendance of over 125 technical, general management and investment professionals – few if any resembling cyborgs – and was supported by several exhibitors with real products.
The discussions included next to more forwarding thinking and far-reaching technical and market development ideas case studies of successful product launches, implementations and revenue-generating programs. This later part is a strong indicator the Wearable Electronic and Smart Fabric business is getting in shape.
One of the highlights of the conference according VDC’s press release was a presentation made by CuteCircuit which demonstrated its wearable infotainment/communications solution – the Hug Shirt.
Although VDC believes the Hug Shirt will likely be more of a novelty item, the application of digitizing biophysical monitoring data, transmitting it and applying it for a number of uses provides huge market opportunities in several segments.
VDC’s Conclusion – The Best Is Yet to Come
In conclusion, this was the best SFIT conference that VDC has attended during the past 6 years – during which time VDC has consistently been covering the SFIT and Wearables markets. The overall experience confirmed our opinion that the markets for SFIT enabling technologies and SFIT enabled solutions are viable and may present a multi-billion dollar opportunity for companies with unique combination of research and development, commercialization, market development, partnership management and (for the near term) fundraising.
