Technology meets fashion: The new iPod jacket

by Jon Minners

So, you’re chilling on the train, blasting your iPod when suddenly, the Backstreet Boys come on in full blast.  You, a man, likes the song, but you, a man, doesn’t want the people near you to hear it, so you fumble quickly into your pockets to try and skip to the next song, but your fumbling has drawn undo attention onto yourself.  Now they all know and the hot girl near by; she may like sensitive men, but not that sensitive, and you just lost that shot you thought you had when your eyes connected as she stepped on to the train.  Imagine if you had one of these new iPod jackets from Kenpo. 

Launched last year, Kenpo takes a cue from today’s hip lifestyle fashions and has recently announced the release of 15 new fashionable fun styles available in more than a dozen colors. 

From earthly browns, cool grays and lustrous blacks to electric green, dazzling winter white and icy blue, Kenpo’s 2006 line-up of iPod enabled jackets come in a vibrant array of colors and new signature styles including: fluffy bubble jackets, sleek sprinter’s jackets, show-stopping snowboarding jackets and wind resisting windbreakers. 

The ultimate iPod accessory, Kenpo’s all new styles provide wearers with a warm, secure and stylish way to listen to and change their tunes, beats or tracks using the fully integrated and seamless iPod control panel located on the lower portion of each jacket’s sleeve. 

From snowboarding to a night on the town, wearers can pause, skip tracks and adjust volume, without fumbling with awkward zippers and gloves, or hard to get pockets, all the while leaving one’s iPod tucked away in the jacket’s inner padded pouch.  And, the new locking feature prevents the settings from being changed due to accidental bumping. 

Through its inaugural jacket, Kenpo created a much awaited harmonious convergence of technology and fashion forward style that has since redefined the iPod listening experience while ushering in a while new lifestyle reality.  This year, Kenpo infuses hip fashion sensibility with energetic styles and serves up new jackets, options, textures and fashions for both men and women with active music loving lifestyles. 

Allowing iPod-users to wear their music on their sleeves, Kenpo’s technology enabled line of jacket employs ElekTex patented “smart fabric” touch pad technology to transform the sleeve into a five-button electronic control panel for use with all iPod models except for the iPod shuffle.  But if you have an iPod Shuffle, you probably don’t understand the idea of cool technology anyways, so why bother. 

You never need to remove the iPod at all.  The buttons are in-sync with the device, operating exactly the same way without the need of wires.  Absent of any wires or any metal contact, the jacket is machine washable, completely self-powered and requires no batteries. 

I wore the jacket and spent a whole day with it on, riding the rails of the #6 train and the N train to Queens and it really does work.  I wore a nice black number with athletic yellow stripes, but the best part was that the keys are also black and were almost unable to be seen, making it look like just a regular jacket with no secret powers.  But every once in awhile when my favorite songs from Vanilla Ice to Color Me Badd (just kidding – who likes Color Me Badd?) came on and I didn’t want anyone else to hear them, I would lift my arm up and like a cool character from Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica press some keys to activate my hidden device and fast forward to cool tracks from Tupac and Eminem.  This is honestly the greatest way I have found to listen to music. 

 “Our expanded line of Kenpo Jackets for iPod integrates form and function with personal expression and style,” said Kenpo director Tom Krutilek.  “Our jackets take technology and fashion and interweave them to create an exciting new soundtrack to everyday life.  Now iPod lovers have the opportunity to control their own environment in 15 more stylish ways.”

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