Title	SKARV - A WEARABLE YOU ACTUALLY WANT TO WEAR
Brand	SKARV-FASHION GBR
Product/Service	SKARV - A WEARABLE YOU ACTUALLY WANT TO WEAR
Category	A07. Wearable Technology
Entrant	DENKWERK Cologne, GERMANY
Idea Creation	DENKWERK Cologne, GERMANY

Name	Company	Position
Alina Schlaier	denkwerk GmbH	Creative Director

The Campaign

SKARV is a scarf: a scarf that transmits sensations. It is quite possibly the most genuine digital connection between people who are emotionally close but physically far away. These individual “sensations” on the smart phone screen are transmitted via the app to the scarf wearer – and then they are felt through the 12 embedded vibrating motors.

Creative Execution

The (loop) scarf is embedded with 12 extremely flat vibrating motors, which can be intuitively and individually-controlled via the App. The vibration pattern on the screen – duration, order and intensity – is transmitted as a unique “sensation”. The scarf itself is 3-D knitted with eco-friendly yarn. The battery is charged via Micro-USB and communication occurs over Bluetooth on a smart phone. SKARV is genuinely innovative – its technological uniqueness has been confirmed by the patent office. The system is beyond the prototype stage and we are currently in negotiations with labels for its production.

SKARV is truly new. Everything is ready to be scaled – but negotiations are still ongoing (and in many respects have nothing to do with the product itself). What makes us very confident – and what ultimately led to SKARV, were the qualitative test results: whoever tries it on and experiences it, does not want to give it back.

To meet our requirement, we didn’t start out with a technology. Instead, we began with an article of clothing and the question of how we could add a “social” or communicative element. We chose a scarf. It’s an exciting accessory, because in addition to its function, it also has emotional and intimate facets – it protects one of the most vulnerable body parts. From there, we just started creating! In one room, fashion designers and developers designed, tested, learned, improved … The finalization and feasibility tests for the prototype were performed at the same location that Adidas and Gucci test their innovations – at the TextielLab in Tilburg, Holland. The scarf is 3-D knitted with eco-friendly yarn … And we developed an App where the twelve individually controllable and seamlessly imbedded motors can be operated. The system is truly new and unique – as was confirmed by the patent office.