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What are your near-term (30-85 years) predictions for smart clothing?
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There's many ideas and concepts floating about, but which functions & abilities do you think will REALLY catch on and which one do you think will go the way of putting analog radio tranceivers into smartphones?

Personally:

Will make it as a common feature:

  • Universal rain & dirt coating. We can make a really decent chunk of our clothes water repellent right now but as it stands there's usually a steeeeep cost in terms of comfort and style. In the future I suspect we'll manage to advance material science to such an extent that water repellent coats will near-seamlessly blend into the material alongside the invention of materials that don't look like a shopping bag in the shape of a cloak when you wear them.
  • (Limited) tightness adjustment. Belts & buttons can be quite stylish but drawstrings for example rarely look all that nice. When it's windy or raining a clothing item that tightens up around extremities or the waist would be a major boon especially when dealing with some unexpected circumstance.

Will probably remain a gimmick or walkway novelty

  • Major shape change. Runs into too many issues where you're pushing well beyond the limit of what conservation of mass and energy would allow. Turning bulletproof is one thing but you're not really benefiting a lot from a cloth that can morph from a tunic into a blouse all that much.
  • Responsive & fully adjustable color palettes. Again. Very gimmicky. Will probably have its place in certain aesthetic niches or jobs but overall one size fits all (no pun intended) solutions tend to get rejected both for vanity reasons and cause they tend to just not be all that good.
  • Biometrics & medical functions. Logistical, legal & maintenance nightmare for minimal benefit. Having a dedicated wearable just for taking stats is simply far easier to account for. Administering drugs or first aid runs into major physical limits and is a major risk factor.
  • Major envirosuit functions. We'd likely see casual spacesuits but not not casualwear that just so happens to have a fully functional survival packet for the sea or space. The air, heat & waste disposal package ain't gonna get mackiged away by wishing really hard.

Any other ideas? Additions? Rebuttals? Would love to hear it all!

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Maybe Heely's will be popular again.

Heelies (and baggy reflective rave pants and goth attire) ARE popular again. 😁

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