PRESS: Page Online Sneak Peek at Qi Suit Powered by Intel Curie

 

Qi SUIT PRESS TEASER from 360Fashion on Vimeo.

Berlin, Germany - PRESS: Page-Online.de have given everyone a sneak peek at our upcoming launch with ROMASTER: The Qi Suit made with the 360Fash Tech "Gesture" Kit. 

The Qi Suit was a particularly challenging creation because of the obstacles we needed to overcome in order to create this incredibly tailored suit by Master Li - the Golden Scissors award winning tailor who recently died, with my work with him as his last great living legacy on this earth. Although I could not speak a single word with Master Li, we had another way to communicate that transcended language: we had the language of innovation. 

The main obstacle to this project was TIME. We only had 45 Days to complete this project and then launch it at Intel Developer Conference in Shenzhen May 13th, 2016. The second most prominent obstacle was CULTURE & LANGUAGE. The third most difficult obstacle was TECHNOLOGY.

TIME

With only 45 days to complete the project for the Intel Developer Conference 2016, we worked 45 days straight with very long hours up to 2:00AM the next day. We had to figure out the parts, order the parts, test the parts, and then build the LED patterns. Lack of sleep is not a good thing for a team because it leads to short tempers and not clear thinking. Some days we just had to roll up our sleeves and drink a lot of black tea.

CULTURE & LANGUAGE

With the whole team of 10 people speaking Chinese, I found myself challenged with only translation to help me explain and communicate how to execute the project. We had to revert to a lot of diagrams, and twice I had to pull in my friends who just for their kindness came in and solved the problems late at night. Also in using online project management software, the fashion team had no VPN's and were not able to follow the project in a "modern" way. The engineering team often did not get the whole specifications translated and thus we had mistakes that we had to re-do and would lose time. In these situations it is extremely important to be professional and to put your nose to the grindstone and not give up. To be flexible and willing to give up something but also to go back and re-do, including things that may have been lost in translation. #NeverNeverNeverGiveUp

TECHNOLOGY

Currently there are a lot of LEDs out there and we had to make quick decisions on what type we were going to sew into the suit. We made several tests and in the end forgot about LED Strips because it would be prone to fail on the weakest points: the soldering joints at the end of the strips. Flexible LED boards that we cut were too hard and would be extremely uncomfortable for the wearer. The final test, and ultimate choice were the LEDs in shapes on boards. This allowed us to create a poetic pattern, but had big enough holes on the back for us to solder them together with insulated thread.

Stay tuned for more of this epic story and the launch!