Eleksen's smart fabric controls bring hands-free electronic controls for cell phones and iPods to clothing line
--Eleksen Group plc. (AIM:ELG.L), the world’s leading provider of touch-sensitive smart fabrics for consumer electronics in apparel and accessories, today announced that sporting goods retailer City Sports will carry a new line of iPod-enabled apparel using Eleksen’s ElekTex® technology. Consumers can enjoy their music in style with this novel merging of technology and fashion.
City Sports, an award winning retailer for the metropolitan athlete, has 15 stores on the East Coast, including Boston, Providence, New York, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Baltimore and Atlanta. The stores will carry a line of men’s and women’s performance outdoor apparel featuring Eleksen’s Made-for-iPod controller. The Made-for-iPod apparel will join the City Sports private label line CS and will arrive in stores mid October.
“We are thrilled to be joining forces with Eleksen to create a line of iPod enabled jackets,” said Jeff Connor, Chief Merchandise Officer of City Sports. “The interactive apparel market is thriving and is only expected to grow; this is a great time for City Sports to integrate an innovative technology like ElekTex into our apparel.”
Each jacket uses Eleksen’s smart fabric technology that has been integrated into the sleeves as iPod control pads. This allows wearers complete control of the iPod, including On/Off, play, pause, track changes and volume, from their sleeve, while keeping the device safely tucked away in their pocket. The durable, stylish jackets are water resistant, and come in three styles for both men and women.
“City Sports customers appreciate the latest athletic wear styles and features,” said Robin Shephard, CEO of Eleksen. “These new designs are particularly appealing, as they not only offer handy features for runners and other athletes to enjoy their music but help to protect the iPod from wear and tear.”
The jackets are machine washable, require no batteries, and are completely self-powered and customer friendly. Visit one of the City Sports Stores for additional details.
For more information about Eleksen offerings, please visit www.eleksen.com.
About City Sports
City Sports is an award-winning specialty sports retailer that focuses on the athletic, metropolitan adult. Its product assortment stresses performance selection (shoes, clothing and equipment) in key categories for that customer including running, fitness, racquet sports, yoga and swim. The company has 15 stores on the East Coast, including Boston, Providence, New York, Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Atlanta.
About Eleksen
Eleksen Group plc is the world leader in touch sensitive interactive textiles for electronics interface design. The company's core technology, ElekTex, is a unique electro-conductive fabric touch pad optimized for the creation of flexible, durable and rugged fabric touch screen interfaces. ElekTex is used in applications ranging from wearable electronic controls for consumer electronics and industrial wear to lightweight, low-power touch interfaces for CE accessories, telematics, military, transportation and space suits. It replaces the hard touch pads, flexi-circuits and polymer switches which have limited the growth of the wearable electronics markets. Eleksen licenses ElekTex and reference design to manufacturers for use in custom electronics design and also markets a range of ready-to-integrate solutions for garment, bags and accessories manufacturers. Eleksen is headquartered in Pinewood Studios near London, England, and in San Francisco, Calif.