Almost every time I go out with my friends, I find myself with a dead iPhone. Outlets in bars, restaurants and subway cars can be hard to come by. Yes, there are a plethora of portable battery packs of all sizes, but the few that actually give your phone a solid jolt are bulky and awkward to carry around. Complain no more. There’s a new line of wireless charging apparel on Kickstarter. It’s the first smart clothing line designed with wireless transmitters to charge mobile devices on the go, and the options aren’t hideous. Heck, there’s even a bomber jacket. All items are machine washable, and it’s even possible to charge more than one device at the same time.
“Nobody wants to carry a portable battery pack,” BauBax founder Hiral Sanghavi told iDigitalTimes. “If it is late in the evening and you want to hang out but have low battery, you can still get an Uber back home.”
BauBax officially launched its ecosystem of wearable chargers on Kickstarter June 28. Wallets, jeans, hoodies and jackets all work together to make sure your devices are always charged. Choose from a bomber jacket, sweatshirt, vest, or a down jacket. For men, there’s two styles of jeans, chinos and a pair of shorts. Prices range from $69-169.
However, it’s not only the idea of charging apparel that makes Sanghvi's product so unique, it's also the hardware inside. “This is the world's thinnest wireless transmitting pad. Because it's so thin and light, we can place it anywhere in the garment,” Sanghavi said.
Special pockets and slots on the inside of each jacket are the safest place to charge your phone. Just slip the device into the designated space, and it’ll begin charging automatically. BauBax’s wireless earphones fit right on a special charging ring on the collar of BauBax jackets. The placeholder is magnetic, so even if you're going for a jog, the earphones should stay in place.
How does this technology work?
There are three important ingredients: the battery bank, the transmitter and your device. BauBax relies on the Qi protocol for inductive charging. More than 140 android smartphones have this (including the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Google Nexus devices), but unfortunately all the iPhone users out there will have to use BauBax’s special case with a built-in receiver for this technology to work properly. Sorry, just blame Apple!
The main purpose of the wallet is to hold the battery bank, custom-sized to fit snugly. One battery bank holds enough power to charge your phone twice, and its job is to send power to the transmitters placed in the apparel – kind of like the arc-reactor in Tony Stark’s Iron Man suit. That's how when you slip your phone into the designated pocket, it automatically starts charging. There also mini charging coins that fit into the sleeve of BauBax’s jackets to easily charge your smartwatch.
Charge the battery bank while it's still in your wallet with BauBax’s charging pads, which you can place around your house as long as it’s near a wall outlet. Just drop the wallet right on top.
Sanghavi was finishing his MBA at Northwestern University when his wife got an idea about making a custom travel jacket with 15 secret functions, including a built-in inflatable pillow, eye mask and tablet pocket. Even though Sanghavi is a tech guy with a background in robotics, he thought it would be a cool, simple summer project. It quickly became the most funded clothing item on Kickstarter ever. Sanghavi decided to pursue the project more seriously and even turned down an offer from Apple.
“We raised 9 million and I never went back to school,” Hirjai said.
It wasn’t until the BauBax team traveled to China that Sanghavi’s wife and co-founder, Yoganshi, came up with an idea to take their venture a step further.
“When were in China getting the travel jacket manufactured, we were all running out of battery because we were using a lot of GPS,” Sanghavi said. “We were sharing a huge bulky battery pack – my employees and myself. That’s when my wife came up with the idea: how about a jacket that charges the phone? We instantly started working on it.”
The one thing BauBax is missing are jeans/pants for women because there wasn’t enough interest early on, but Sanghavi says that's subject to change.
“There could be a huge community of women backers who don't mind the wallet in their jeans and we may launch that as well.”
Visit the BauBax Kickstarter page to learn more.
