This new smart jacket from Levi and Google will ensure you never get separated from your mobile device.

With our increasing reliance on our mobile devices, it means that there is even more at stake when we end up leaving our beloved technology behind. Not only is it the source of our communication, but these smartphones now contain most of our recent photos, personal music playlist and a variety of other apps that have become such an integral part in the way we do life. Which is why it can be such a heart-stopping moment when we suddenly lose or misplace our mobile device and are sent into a panic in trying to find it.

And it is in this interest of your health and mental state of mind that the new Levi smart jacket which was designed in conjunction with Google, titled Jacquard, comes to life. This smart jacket, which is designed to incorporate and sync with Android devices so that you can control music and pings from the likes of Google Maps or Uber, includes a feature called Always Together which triggers an automatic alert when its wearer is too far away from a smartphone. When triggered, Jacquard will send a notification to your phone and cause the jacket to vibrate and blink to let its wearer know they have left their device behind. A nice feature for those who at times can be a bit absent-mindedd or an annoying one if you frequently pass your phone to your partner or kids to play with and then have to frequently live with an annoying sensation in your arm that makes you think that you’re having a sudden heart attack.

Still, it’s an interesting new concept which will mostly likely find an interest from people who want the comfort of knowing that their beloved mobile phones are with them at all times. Whether it will justify the Jacquard’s $350 (about R5000) price tag though is another question. As is the fact that most people tend to be a little fashion conscience about wearing the same jacket every time they go out, which means that concerned people will need to buy multiple jackets in different colours to match the rest of their wardrobe.

Considering many of these features are already available in most smart watches, perhaps people can save money and just buy one of those instead.  It also gives you the peace of mind known that the risk of your clothing combusting spontaneously is also drastically reduced.

Last Updated: December 10, 2018