The idea of a collection designed specifically for commuters is intriguing. Would it include rush-hour necessities such as a jacket with extendable arms to allow for opening a newspaper spread in a crowded tube carriage; steel-capped boots to prevent toe crush on a cramped bus; a backpack with a “deflate” function? As it turned out, Levi’s commuter collection featured a collection of lightweight and water-resistant pieces of clothing (jeans, shirts) made for the urban cyclist, rather than modern-day Reginald Perrins getting the 5.54am from Woking. Sorry Reg.
Well, now Levi’s have collaborated with Google to produce the Levi’s Commuter x Jacquard by Google Trucker Jacket. It’s a dark blue jean jacket but, the I Am Keyser Söze-style twist is that it is a “living” jacket. Made from Jacquard yarn, which contains metallic elements that respond to touch, the jacket would operate in a similar way to a smart phone. In the demonstration video, a cyclist taps and swipes his sleeve to get directions to his destination and to change his playlist. There are so many questions about the jacket that need to be answered (most pressingly: can you put it in spin cycle with the 3D shoes you’ve just printed out, or should you send the whole lot to the dry cleaners in Minority Report?) but we’ll have to wait until the collection launches next year to find out the answers.
