This Entrepreneur is Weaving Tech Into Fabric People are constantly looking for ways to utilize the benefits technology has to offer and are amazed in their pursuit
By Nidhi Singh •
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Present day technology has an array of gadgets and gizmos in store for the smart generation, from fitness bands to smartwatches, revolutionizing the concept of wearables.
The advent of the smartphone has made every task, like measuring your fitness level and counting the number of steps you have taken a particular day, easy with just a tap of your finger.
The unprecedented popularity of wearables is evident from its vast utility coverage, benefitting doctors as well as athletes.
Broadcast Wearables, a Hyderabad-based start-up kicked off with a unique T-shirt called Sygnal Message LED T-Shirt, the world's first programmable, touch-enabled item of clothing.
The t-shirt syncs with a mobile phone and changes designs and slogans according to users' choice. In fact, the designs can be changed by tapping on the T-shirt logo.
"My company makes wearable technology for everyday use. It has solutions for problems that most wearables tend to have. I started Broadcast Wearables along with my wife in 2015," said Ayyappa Nagubandi, Founder & CEO of Broadcast Wearables Pvt Ltd.
Weaving Technology Into The Fabric Of Lives
Ayyappa is of the opinion that wearable technology is all the rage now. People are constantly looking for ways to utilize the benefits that technology has to offer and are amazed in their pursuit.
Innovators are looking for novel ways to incorporate technology in their day-to-day activities.
"One day, while attending a boring meeting, I started ruminating on mankind's success in developing technology. It struck me that almost all wearables come as objects like bracelets, jewellery, accessories. What about our clothes? They are as dumb as lamp posts. Whatever 'smart' objects we own are external tools. What if we had something that would knit technology into the very fabric we wear," he explained.
Technology for Each Product
The company has introduced multiple products and technology for each of which is different. As for the Sygnal message LED T-shirt, it consists of tiny LEDs that connect with the accompanying app to give you complete control to operate it as per your wish.
Sygnal fitness T-shirt pairs up with an app to tell you exactly the number of steps you have taken on a particular day and the number of flights of stairs you have climbed and the corresponding calorie burn.
Additionally, it also helps you navigate in and around a new place without having to resort to maps or navigation on your phone. It will simply vibrate on the shoulder to tell you the direction you should be going!
'We Hope To Change The Way People Wear Clothes'
Talking about his entrepreneurial journey, Ayyappa said, "Broadcast is not my first start-up. I have set up companies even before but not all of them have been successful. I have spent sleepless nights, trying to come up with ideas that would be the next best thing since sliced bread."
He stressed that starting a company was not a leisure stroll in the park. It is fraught with uncertainty and requires a lot of courage to be able to handle a host of uncertainties.
"My failures and the pains I had to endure did not deter me from constantly wanting to create something better, to come up with that one idea that would disrupt industries as we know it," he added.
With Broadcast Wearables, Ayyappa hopes to change the way people wear clothes in the future.
"We want to create an ecosystem around smart clothing and help people lead better lives by fusing technology and fashion," he concluded.
