Ben Cooper, CEO, IoClothes, talks to Madelaine Cornforth about the growth of the smart textiles sector, the business model changes required to develop the market and regulations needed to secure it.
Smart textiles are the future of the technical textiles market. However, textiles and technology companies are inherently different and can struggle to understand and work with each other successfully.
Ben Cooper, founder of consultancy firm and information platform IoClothes, aims to change this. As previously one of the co-founders of VF Corporation’s global innovation team and a former researcher and tester of innovation in companies such as The North Face and Timberland, Cooper is an expert in wearable exploration across a wide spectrum. However, one of the major issues he faced was that when communicating with technology companies or partners, there just wasn’t a base understanding of how textiles, apparel and footwear work and similarly, those in the textile industry would find the technology world very foreign.
“It makes sense because they don’t have the professional expertise in the other person’s field and so we’re mixing oil and water when we try to bring these worlds together,” Cooper says. “Most of the energy actually goes into getting people up to speed. Getting them familiar with what’s possible. Getting them a new network and getting the partners and moving their network so we can start to work on projects together. I couldn’t be alone in this struggle,” he adds.
IoClothes, launched in May 2017, helps to bridge the gap between technology and textiles. The company works with apparel and footwear brands, technology companies of all sizes and start-ups right across the eco-system. Cooper says: “We are at a very interesting stage in the maturation of this industry. Technology and the ability to do certain things at the scale that is necessary to see global impact is coming to be.”
For example, he adds that sensor technology is becoming robust and laundering clothes in textiles, and making them safe for human interaction, is becoming standard. “Being able to integrate them in a reliable and robust way is possible today, so we are seeing this very interesting inflection point.,” says Cooper. “The way that we see it is that the challenge that we are faced with now is making sure that people are aware of who it is that they should be partnering with and what is possible in order to actually scale these ideas.”
Of course, there’s still a lot of technical issues that need to be worked out to have invisible technology become ubiquitous. But, Cooper notes, “the solutions that I think could be extremely viable in the market address pain points that people have, whether it be through health monitoring, not just through steps and calories and things like that, but actually being able to offer medical-grade quality signals that could help with reducing healthcare costs and actually being proactive with our care as opposed to being reactive, which is the current model.”
This sort of technology is possible today, but the only way it is going to become a reality is if the people involved are all aware of who they should be partnering with, so they can ultimately scale those ideas, according to Cooper.
Regulations
When it comes to smart textiles, particularly in the medical and protective fields, regulations and standards are paramount. However, for many fields in the smart textiles arena, the regulations simply don’t exist because they are so new. Regulations therefore have to catch up with the technology that is being developed in this space.
Cooper says: “Regulation is a good thing because it is designed to protect the end user. It is designed to protect the consumer of that product so that they’re not exposing themselves to unnecessary risks.”
There are two ways in which company’s in smart textiles approach regulations, according to Cooper’s experience. He says: “Some companies say, ‘ok we’re going to try have a really great product and we are going to strive for medical-level data quality and safety etc, but without making those claims right away because it’s expensive. It takes a lot of time to be able to navigate all those things that will grant it medical-grade status.”
On the opposing side, he adds: “I’ve also heard companies saying, it’s a long road, it’s slower, it’s more expensive, but we want to make sure that when we are out on the other side and we are actually interfacing with clients, customers and the users, we can stand on solid ground that our product has passed the highest and most rigorous evaluation standards that exist out there.”
It is important to note that, with these two methods, there is not a right or wrong approach to meeting industry regulations. Cooper continues: “Getting your product out there and not overstating what it is capable of doing but being able to study where there may be opportunities to improve it is a good thing – you’re making a better product. On the flipside, being able to tick all the boxes and being able to stand on solid ground from day one is also a good thing. It all depends on where you are within your business’ maturation and the amount of resources you have behind you.”
ASTM's textile standards provide the specifications and test methods for the physical, mechanical, and chemical properties of textiles, fabrics, and cloths, as well as the natural and artificial fibres that constitute them - the organisation is now looking at testing for e-textiles. Also, the IPC E-Textiles Committee is developing two standards for the e-textiles market: IPC-8921, Requirements for Electronic Textiles (E-Textiles), Conductive Fibers and Conductive Yarns; and IPC-8941, Guideline on Connections for E-Textiles.
Cooper is a member of the IPC E-Textiles Committee and notes that standards are absolutely critical for so many reasons. “One is obviously to be able to know what you’re building and building towards something,” says Cooper. “Right now, there isn’t clear guidance on exactly what an e-textile is and how it should perform – and perform in what circumstances. There needs to be a better understanding of laundering and laundering standards. It’s going to be body-worn for instance, or even bedding, those things are going to be laundered at some point. We have to know what exactly the protocol is and how do we know if it’s actually meeting those standards. This is absolutely critical.”
Then, from a development standpoint, a company is looking to integrate or invest in smart textiles, how does it compare Vendor A vs. Vendor B? “Today this is very challenging,” notes Cooper. “Let’s say I’m looking for a conductive ink or a conductive thread and there is company A and company B. I’m looking at their performance and they’re giving me their tech-sheets. Their tech-sheets are not to a standard so you’re having to test them on your own independently and you’re applying some sort of best-practice to how you’re evaluating that, but not actually independently vetting it to a standard.” He questions: “How does that person go to the next company and say yeah I passed this one or it met the standard?” This is a big challenge that has, in some ways, stunted the smart textile industry’s growth because it takes time to be able to determine whether or not a product will satisfy the end use application.
Growth
The growth of the smart textiles market is dependent on a number of factors, with the consumer and technology being key drivers in this. However, Cooper does not believe the inflection point will come from consumer demand, but where he does see growth is in the field of medical textile devices. Cooper describes this industry as being ‘extremely capitalised’. And as a result, “there needs to be more capital in the smart textiles space because there’s an opportunity there,” he adds.
Also, with the ever-increasing costs of medical care, there is an opportunity in the market to develop textile technology that has the ability to reduce pressures on medical institutions and bring down costs. This could be achieved by preventing patients from going into hospital by having a much clearer understanding of what is happening with that individual so that a diagnosis is made sooner and, what Cooper thinks is the biggest opportunity, are preventative measures. “Being proactive with care [rather than reactive] and proactive with one’s health so that the potential illness and potential reduced quality of life – if this ever occurs - can be prevented from happening altogether,” he says.
“I believe that using products we already have – soft shoes, pants, shirts – and having those turned into medical devices that allow us to live a better, healthier life will ultimately reduce costs which I think is a major driver for anything – dissolving problems that have large financial ties to them. There’s a real opportunity there,” Cooper continues.
Textiles as a platform
Making textiles smart, like in the medical example, brings a greater opportunity for textiles and the textile market. Cooper says there is an opportunity for textiles to become a “continuous data acquiring mechanism.” In short, textiles as a platform. “Textiles are ubiquitous,” he adds. “They’re not just clothing. They’re not just upholstery. They’re not just home textiles. They’re in industrial environments. They’re in medical devices. They’re everywhere. One thing that is important as we start to think about smart textiles is to think of textiles as a platform.”
He continues: “If textiles are actually a platform, how do you use it and what industries are built on top of it?” he asks. Whether it is the interior of a car, apparel, bed linen, upholstery etc, if the textile can become a platform then things can be built off of it.
For this, Cooper estimates that the industry is between three and five years away from the textiles as-a-platform concept entering the mainstream mass market. And by mass market, Cooper notes that he means “companies that are predicting nine figure revenues”.
This will come as we start to see more and more compelling use cases over the next few years. Cooper predicts: “What we will see more and more of is ‘wow, that’s very interesting but the business model needs to be figured out’. This is because today the textile market is highly commoditised. That’s not sustainable for the smart textiles market.”
How smart textiles products generate income, therefore, has to change and Cooper notes that the first to figure out this new business model will be ‘handsomely rewarded.’
But it will take time for these models to be vetted and work themselves out. “The opportunity is massive but it needs influence so people can be tempted by that and try it, try new models and try new experiences. Again, Facebook and Instagram and these other companies, we use them and I don’t pay them a dime. But they somehow, quarter over quarter, bring in nine and ten figure income streams. So how can we turn a textile into a platform like that?”
Cooper adds: “We have a unique advantage because we are talking about physical products. And the form that textiles take, they are everywhere. And they can get into places that other things just simply can’t. That’s a big advantage.”
Business models
The right business model is the biggest challenge in ensuring a smart textile product is successful. Cooper says that a business model is not about how you make money, that’s only a piece of it. He explains: “Because at the end of the day, the number one thing with the business model is how am I imparting value to my customer?” And then, once the value becomes recognised, the money will come with it.
Who the customer actually is also needs to be re-evaluated: “Who is your customer? Is it someone that you haven’t even thought of in an industry that you’ve never interfaced with? Because they could use the information better than anyone else. There’s a discovery process that needs to take place and I think it is happening internally and people are starting to wake up,” says Cooper as people will need to look outside of traditional textile industries such as the apparel or home textile markets with many smart textile products.
“The industry is becoming aware that there is a bigger opportunity,” he says. “We need to keep our eyes and minds open to relationships that we would never have considered.” Consequently, business models need to be considered as the technology for impressive smart textile products already exists. Cooper says: “Everyone looks at: What’s the margin on that? What’s the cost to the end-user for that chair seat, for example?” He says: “I think there will be a time where that is irrelevant.”
Where the cost of a product to the end-consumer is no longer the driving force of a sale, Cooper predicts that in the future, revenue is not going to be about how much it costs to get a product out into the market, but about getting it out into the market even if it has to be given away for free because, “the US$100 that I would get for that shirt is meaningless compared to the revenue streams that I could produce from other services that I build on top of it,” says Cooper. “That’s a finite transaction.”
For example, he says: “Imagine there is a thread supplier. A business model has been worked out where the supplier is making US$0.001 cents per transaction that your thread actually helped facilitate. Is that a better deal than paying US$1,000 for 10,000 yards of thread? I would say that, depending on where it’s being used, that could be a far more lucrative deal. And it’s infinitely scalable.”
Today, all along the supply chain, people are worried about making a margin and machines that can be faster and more efficient. However, although there are benefits of this from both sustainability and operational efficiency perspectives, Cooper believes that this isn’t where the money lies or at least where the huge margin increases lie. “The money is being able to create business models that give you sustainable revenue streams,” he comments.
