Clothes that charge your phone

You’ve heard of smart phones, what about smart clothes that charge your phone? We headed along to Stolen Girlfriends Club to see Vodafone unveil just that…

You’ve heard of smart phones, what about smart clothes that charge your phone? We headed along to Stolen Girlfriends Club to see Vodafone unveil just that.

Vodafone, as sponsor of Rhythm Group – which has New Zealand’s biggest New Years Eve festivals, Rhythm & Vines and Rhythm & Alps – is announcing some very innovative technology in line with the music festival experience. One of these is a battery charging solar panel. For visual impact, Stolen Girlfriends incorporated them into two showpiece garments on two models at a launch event in their Ponsonby workroom.

These two Rhythm Group NYE festivals are totally cashless, with preloaded wristbands to pay for things. This 2013/14 New Year’s Eve, Vodafone will make SmartPass mobile payment system available so customers can swipe compatible phones on selected eftpos terminals to pay.

They’re also giving away 1,000 lucky solar-powered mobile chargers the size of hi-tech king size chocolate bars in their Believe the Buzz promotion where the public can Instagram photos with RnVBuzz. Details on Vodafone’s Facebook page.

Stolen Girlfriends Club Creative Director, Marc Moore said they call the final creation "festival gladiator", with the solar panels resembling scales of armour.

The charged garments will be auctioned by Vodafone in the lead-up to their Believe the Buzz promotion (starting December 2) with proceeds going to Starship children’s hospital. If anyone needs armour, it’s those kids.

Photos Megan Robinson
21 October 2013