Wearable videos? Sean John embeds screens into knits

COURTESY THE RECOM GROUP INC. Sean John created this sweater, with an embedded paper-thin video player in the knit, for Macy's.

Lesley Ciarula Taylor 
Staff Reporter 

It’s a new twist to the personalized sweater: wearing your videos on your sleeve.

Musician and designer Sean John created the grey shawl collar fleece sweater for Macy’s department store using the OLED (organic LED) technology of The Recom Group Inc. to embed a paper-thin video player in the knit.

“We put it inside jeans and shirts for the Consumer Electronic Show and Macy’s flipped over it,” Recom president Rob Norden told the Star.

The flexible video player can run for eight to 10 hours comfortably, he said. “We’ve had some videos go 32 hours of continuous play.”

Organic LED, he said, is a light-emitting technology composed of a thin organic film placed between an anode and a cathode.

And you can remove the seven-centimetre wide device for washing.

Macy’s decided to use Recom’s existing Video Name Tag technology, which the company had already marketed on belt buckles, microphone flashes and name tags.

“We do business to business for promotions and advertising,” Norden explained. “We are starting to get people interested in using it on a personal level.

“Sean John embraced it first but we’ve had other people interested. We want to take it to the next level” which would be video screens as integral parts of the textiles.

Macy’s declined to reveal sales figures for the sweater.