We’re thrilled to announce that our Mercury intelligent heated jacket has won Fast Company’s Innovation by Design award in the Fashion and Beauty category! The 2018 Innovation By Design Awards honor the designers and businesses solving the problems of today and tomorrow, and this year judges selected standouts from more than 2,800 submissions across 16 categories.
Entries are judged on the key ingredients of innovation: Functionality, originality, beauty, sustainability, depth of user insight, cultural impact, and business impact. The judges note that “All the honorees share one thing: a commitment to solving problems, no matter how big or small, as simply and as beautifully as possible.” We were honored to contend with finalists such as AllBirds, Levi Strauss, Nike, Sephora and Nordstrom. Thanks so much, FastCo!
About Mercury
The Mercury intelligent heated jacket is a voice-controlled winter jacket that learns and automatically heats to each wearer’s optimal temperature. Using an accelerometer, body temperature and outside temperature, the Mercury warms up to the perfect amount. Much like a Nest thermostat, the jacket uses machine learning to adapt to the wearer’s preferences—so you can comfortably move between walking outside in the bitter cold to riding a crowded subway or bus, without overheating. On top of that, with a simple ‘Alexa, turn on my jacket,’ the lightweight, built-in heaters will warm up before you head out the door.
We were pumped about the chance to use machine learning to solve an everyday wardrobe problem. Where other brands are taking technology and trying to figure out how to make it ‘wearable’, we’re all about taking traditional clothing and applying the latest technology in a purposeful and natural manner. We believe that with this tech, clothing should improve and become more personalized the more you use it. As voice assistants continue become a household staple, you can seamlessly integrate preheating this jacket into your daily routine—not a far cry from remote starting your car on cold, winter mornings.
The specs
With its stylish, fitted design, and waterproof, windproof, high-stretch fabric and odor resistant insulation, Mercury is more than just a heated jacket. The jacket is both stylish and functional, and can be worn as an everyday coat. The jacket’s slim, nearly weightless battery in the front pocket also doubles as a wireless phone charger, a necessity in today’s digital world - simply slide your Qi-charging phone into the pocket and it’ll automatically charge. We’ll be surprised if you’ll ever need another jacket!
The process
Tinkerers at heart, we’ve always been obsessed with experimenting and solving everyday issues. We were excited to apply our engineering background and design thinking to our first foray into the wearables market. Get the details here.
When can you wear it?
We’re launching the jacket for consumer use this fall.
