翻译天堂 2016-10-23
The race to make wearables cool
Standing in Levi’s sweaty atelier, where the jeans maker experiments with new designs, just blocks from the San Francisco Bay, Paul Dillinger pulls on a new denim jacket. Created for cyclists, it has a drop-back tail, so your back isn’t left exposed; storm cuffs, to stop air blowing up your sleeves; and, unexpectedly, the technological equivalent of a magic wand.
保罗•狄林格(Paul Dillinger)站在牛仔装生产商李维斯(Levi’s)异常闷热的新装试验室里，正在试穿一件牛仔夹克新样装。这件牛仔装专为自行车运动员打造：防止参赛车手露出后背的圆尾形后摆(drop-back tail)以及防止窜风的防风式袖口，这款牛仔夹克犹如从天而降的魔杖，无所不能。
“What spells would you like to cast today?” he laughs, tapping on his left arm, where sensors have been woven into the fabric and a colour-changing light is snapped on to the cuff.
“看看这件新装今天能施展什么魔法？”他敲击着左胳膊笑问道，传感器缝进了牛仔面料中，变幻颜色的光束照射到了衣服袖口处。
The sleeve is enchanted: inside is technology that can help cyclists do everything from answer phone calls to avoid getting lost. Cyclists can use their smartphone to set up the jacket so it recognises “favourite” callers. They can then tap or swipe their sleeve to send a text saying what time they are likely to arrive home — drawn from data on their location via Google Maps.
袖口也如同被施了魔法：内置的高科技能让车手实现从接听电话到查询方位的各项功能。车手可以用自己的智能手机对夹克进行设置，夹克就能识别出车手最常用的电话联系人；通过谷歌地图(Google Maps)提供的具体方位信息，车手可以轻击或重击袖口来发送大约何时到家的短信。
The jacket — due out in spring 2017 — is part of a new generation of wearables aiming to make technology fashionable. Fashion has been experimenting with technology in high profile one-off garments for a while. But it has not yet brought that technology to a larger market. People were wowed by the Marchesa dress — developed with IBM’s artificial intelligence system, Watson — that changed colour when people tweeted, which Karolina Kurkova wore to the Met Gala this year. Make Fashion, a group of Canadian artists and engineers, have spent five years creating playful designs such as “Gamer Girls” dresses — where the dress changes depending on whether they win or lose. But thus far widespread uptake of such technologies has been slow.
这款夹克预定2017年春季推出，它属于新一代科技时尚化的可穿戴产品。时尚界曾经在知名品牌的一次性服装上试验高科技，但无法实现大规模市场化应用。IBM使用Watson人工智能系统设计的玛切萨(Marchesa)裙子让时尚拥趸如痴如醉，它能根据Twitter用户的情绪变化实时变换颜色，超模卡罗莱娜•库科娃(Karolina Kurkova)穿着它参加了今年的纽约大都会博物馆慈善晚会(Met Gala)。由加拿大一些艺术家与工程师组成的团队Make Fashion花了五年时间设计“Gamer Girls”这类妙趣横生的女裙——它能根据输赢结果变换颜色。但迄今为止，对此类高科技时装的市场认同度仍然相当低。
Even technology companies led by Apple, the most design conscious in the industry, have floundered in creating products that appeal beyond their geeky base. The Apple Watch offers a wide range of straps, including a collection handmade by Hermes artisans in France.
即使是苹果公司引领的高科技公司研发的产品，其影响力也仍然没走出自家的创意工作室。苹果手表(Apple Watch)推出的表带样式五花八门，其中就包括由爱马仕(Hermes)设计师在法国手工打造的一个系列。
Now some fashion houses are starting to form partnerships with technology companies to swap expertise and fill in blind spots. Tech manufacturers are teaching fashion companies about how to make chips and batteries thin, while fashion houses are teaching techies about the trials of making many sizes and ensuring a teched-up garment is fit to launder. Chipmaker Intel has worked with watchmakers Fossil and Tag Heuer and eyewear company Luxottica, while fitness-tracker maker Fitbit has teamed up with both Tory Burch and clothing company Public School.
如今一些时尚品牌开始与科技类公司建立合作关系，以换取对方的专业技能，弥补自身“盲区”。科技类公司向时装公司传授制作小型芯片与电池的技术，而时装公司则向对方传授设计不同型号时装以及确保高科技时装耐洗的诀窍。芯片生产商英特尔(Intel)联手Fossil、豪雅(TAG Heuer)等腕表品牌以及全球最大的眼镜公司Luxottica，而穿戴式健身追踪器生产商Fitbit与汤丽柏琦(Tory Burch)以及时装品牌Public School成了合作伙伴。
Earlier this month during New York Fashion Week Michael Kors announced its first foray into wearable tech. In partnership with Google, the brand has unveiled a smart watch based on its bestselling analogue collection. The new Dylan and Bradshaw models include features such as notification functions, maps, and a voice-directed Google search facility. It will retail for £329 — about £100 more than the analogue version.
九月初的纽约时装周(New York Fashion Week)期间，迈克•科尔斯(Michael Kors)首次宣布进军高科技可穿戴设备领域。在自己最畅销的analogue指针系列手表基础上，它与谷歌合作推出了一款智能腕表。最新推出的Dylan男表与Bradshaw女表拥有通知、地图以及语音定向谷歌探索等功能，其零售价为329英镑，比analogue系列腕表大约贵100英镑。
For Sidney Chang, the principal of business development at Google, these collaborations are an essential part of the company’s future. “We’re very nimble,” he explained during the launch last week. “We’ve already partnered with Fossil, Tag Heuer and Nixon on smartwatches, but each brand represents a different customer and a different set of criteria. We love the diversity of working with different brands, and developing wearables that reflect your identity. Of course, we have the physics to enable these technologies, but we can’t bring the people, or the party, or the associations.”
在谷歌业务开发部主管Sidney Chang看来，与时尚公司的合作对谷歌未来的发展至关重要。“我们会伺机而动。”在不久前的新品发布会上，他这样说道，“谷歌已与Fossil、豪雅以及Nixon合推了智能腕表，但每个品牌又代表了各自不同的消费群体与技术标准。我们喜欢与风格各异的不同品牌合作，研发反映品牌自身特色的可穿戴产品。当然，谷歌有科技产品化的雄厚实力，但没有消费者、群体或团体等人脉资源。”
If Google Glass was an excellent example of a great idea that looked tragically uncool, these new collaborations should go some way to bridging the gulf between function and fashionability. Google gets access to a younger, more image-focused market and all the benefits of a high-end marketing campaign. The fashion house gets to bring its brand to life in new ways, to a new audience. Everyone wins.
如果说谷歌眼镜是绝妙的想法开发成土里土气产品的“典范”，那么高科技公司与时尚品牌的珠联璧合或多或少弥补了功能与时尚之间的鸿沟。谷歌的受众是那些形象至上的年轻人，也是高端营销活动的最大受益者。时尚公司实现了品牌的脱胎换骨，又增加了新的消费群体，这对双方来说是双赢之举。
Google was also Levis’ partner in developing the cycling jacket, bringing together Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects team in Silicon Valley, with the brand’s in-house skunk works.
谷歌也是李维斯牛仔研发自行车手夹克外套的合作者，谷歌位于硅谷的前沿科技攻关小组与李维斯的研发团队(skunk works)实现了珠联璧合。
Dillinger, Levi’s global product innovation lead, says the partnership worked because Google came willing to learn from Levi’s as much as the other way round. And there were considerable challenges: the technology had to survive the aggressive testing conditions demanded of the denim before it gets into stores.
李维斯产品创新部全球主管狄林格说双方的合作之所以成功，是因为双方都愿意从对方身上取长补短，当然双方的合作也面临艰巨挑战：谷歌的高科技必须经受住牛仔装投放市场前的严格测试。
“We had the best capabilities of the two companies frankly,” says Dillinger. “We are not very good at technology and they are not very good at garments.”
“平心而论，我们实现了集双方之优点于一身。”狄林格说，“高科技并非我们的强项，而服装也不是谷歌的强项。”
英特尔新技术部副总裁桑德拉•洛佩兹(Sandra Lopez)则是两者皆备：她的专业是纺织品服装营销，毕业后则在高科技公司工作，来英特尔之前，曾谋职于Adobe与全球最大的网络多媒体软件公司Macromedia。
Sandra Lopez, vice-president at Intel’s new technology group, has both skillsets: she studied textiles and clothes marketing, and then went on to work in tech, including at Adobe and Macromedia, before arriving at Intel.
英特尔把零售商邀请至其硅谷总部，共同探讨面临的挑战，它甚至把自己设计的穿戴设备在纽约时装周上展出。比方说，它智能化了Opening Ceremony设计的MICA手镯，并于2014年推出。这串沉甸甸的手镯用宝石与Ayers蛇皮装饰，可接收短信及社交应用软件的通知。
Intel brings retailers into its Silicon Valley office to discuss the challenges and has even had its own wearables shown at New York Fashion Week. For example, it worked on the MICA (My Intelligent Communication Accessory) designed by Opening Ceremony and launched in 2014. The chunky bracelet, with precious gems and Ayers snakeskin sends the user notifications from SMS and social apps.
过去一年半里，随着更多时尚公司自建高科技的研发部门，洛佩兹说自己就已看到切实进展。她说有时候最关键的是科技助力产品的小型化，这样一来就实现了按钮最少化与电池最小化。
In the last year and a half Lopez says she has begun to see real progress as more fashion houses are building their own research and development departments to examine how to use technology in their collections. Sometimes, she says, the key is to strip down the technology to streamline a product, so it doesn’t need as many buttons or as large a battery.
“工程技术人员青睐于技术突破——那是他们的‘癖好’。为18-35岁的年轻女人设计产品时，这种特性体现得一清二楚，这些产品与她们的关联度到底有多大，很值得商榷。工程技术人员希望科技运用得多多益善，但设计师考虑的则是客户是上帝的‘消费者需求至上’原则。”
“Engineers like to push technological boundaries — bring in a bunch of features — that is their mindset. We see this when we are creating a product for a young woman, aged 18 to 35, and asking what would be relevant for her? Engineers want to add more tech for tech’s sake, but a designer with a customer-centric mindset thinks ‘what is really needed?’”
设计师还从之前从未掌握的数据中获益，比如消费者使用产品的真实信息。在MICA智能腕表上，设计师本认为消费者会优先使用其社交通知功能，而事实上使用最多的却是健身追踪功能，这大大出乎设计师所料。
顾客过去从门店购完物离开后，那种顿悟时刻（“aha moments”，思考过程中一种特殊的、愉悦的体验，期间会突然对之前并不明朗的某个局面产生深入的认识。）从未有之。“科技对促销策略意味着什么？设计是否应该更加花哨些？”洛佩兹这样问道。
Designers are also learning from a set of data they never had before: information on how a customer actually uses the product. On the MICA, designers assumed their audience would prioritise the social notifications — in fact wearers were using the fitness functions much more than expected.
Those “aha moments” were never possible before, once someone had left the store. “What does it mean for merchandising strategy? Should design get sportier?” Lopez asks.
时尚与科技越发亲密无间，造就了更为时尚的可穿戴产品，但普通服装实现科技化依然任重而道远。
硅谷市场分析公司Creative Strategies消费科技分析师卡罗琳娜•米拉内西(Carolina Milanesi)说，科技在实现可穿戴产品时尚化方面差强人意，接受者仍然仅限先期饯行者这一小撮人而已（通常为男性）。“作为市场区隔（Segment，即把消费者依不同需求、特征区分成若干个不同的群体，而形成各个不同的消费群）的一部分，科技迄今为止，在性别差异化方面做得仍不尽如人意。就事论事时无需分析性别差异——也无需因性别而改动数据，但穿戴后的效果就大相径庭了。”她说。当购物不再依靠卖相，而是越来越成为“情绪化产物”时，科技时尚化（即让科技更美观或无形化）也会助销售以一臂之力，让可穿戴产品卖出更高价格。“‘哦，我的老天！这件东西美不胜收！我打算买它！’这种情之所至的冲动会让消费者对价格不屑一顾”。
Fashion and technology are edging closer to a relationship that could produce more stylish wearables, but a future where every wardrobe needs its own chargers still looks a way off.
Carolina Milanesi, a consumer technology analyst at Silicon Valley market research firm Creative Strategies, says the tech industry has failed to make wearables fashionable enough to expand beyond a niche of — often male — early adopters. “As a segment, technology doesn’t do gender differentiation very well so far. You don’t need it when a PC is a PC — and you don’t need to change it if I’m a man or a woman — but it is different if I’m wearing it,” she said.
