Protest & Fashion Combine in New Wearable Tech Jacket

Fashion brand Folk and creative agency Brothers and Sisters have collaborated to develop a world-first piece of wearable tech, designed for one of the symbols of our turbulent times - the protest.

Named the Folk Protest Jacket, the garment was inspired by the slogan t-shirt, made famous by designers like Katherine Hamnett [below right, with Margaret Thatcher]. But, unlike the slogan t-shirt, the Folk Protest Jacket comes with an in-built LED screen and hidden mini-keyboard that allows the wearer to write any slogan and display it proudly on their chest, depending on what cause they’re fighting that day - from Trump to Brexit to nurses’ pay.

The five prototypes have already been worn at assorted London and New York protests and Folk founder, Cathal McAteer and Andy Fowler, founder of Brothers and Sisters, unveiled the Folk Protest Jacket at a live, interactive demonstration talk at Eurobest Festival yesterday [Thursday November 30].

Below, Fowler talks to shots.net about the thinking behind the jacket and how brands can and should embrace social and political causes to influence positive change.

Above: A prototype Protest Jacket being put to good use during a rally in New York.

How did the collaboration with Folk clothing come into being? 

I’ve been friends with Cathal McAteer, the Folk founder, for a few years, mainly because I’m one of his best customers! We’d been talking about doing a project together. We just needed a killer idea.

"The road is littered with the carcasses of brands who have tried to tackle provocative issues."

What was the thinking behind The Protest Jacket?

Two things inspired the project. Firstly my wife’s friend Kippy, who works for the Rockefeller Foundation, was over from Brooklyn. She was talking about how the youngsters in her office don’t go drinking on a Friday night. Instead, they make placards for whatever protests they’re going to that weekend.

Secondly, there was talk of Donald Trump coming to London. We thought we have to do something. We have so much we want to say. Let’s invent something that helps people get their voice heard. We looked into the history of the slogan t-shirt, because it occurred to us that that is the way people have expressed strong opinions in a memorable way for decades.

But the slogan t-shirt is only useful for a single cause. We wanted to create something flexible, that would allow you to tailor your protest message to whatever cause you’re supporting that day. So the Protest Jacket idea was born.

Above: Folk's Cathal McAteer in during the concepting stage of the Protest Jacket.

What were the main considerations when you started working on the project?

Probably combining the understated design ethos of Folk with the functionality of a piece of innovative, wearable tech.

I saw myself as the guardian of the idea, making sure we stayed true to the vision of a flexible, functional, easy to use piece of tech. I left the fashion bit to Cathal, because he kind of knows what he’s doing in that space!

"There are certain words that the hidden mini-keyboard won’t type. Words like the n word. If you try and type that, the jacket writes LOVE."

Other brands have attempted to get involved by leveraging the protest movement in one way or another (Pepsi, most infamously); do you consider this to be a branded project for Folk and B&S and, if so, were you very conscious of how to approach it? 

Yes, we were very conscious of how the Folk brand would approach the idea of protest. The road is littered with the carcasses of brands who have tried to tackle provocative issues. We never wanted Folk to take a political stance. The jacket is about giving a voice tp people who might not have one. We wouldn’t tell you what to say, so long as it isn’t offensive. Having said that, there are certain words that the hidden mini-keyboard won’t type. Words like the n word. If you try and type that, the jacket writes LOVE.

Above: A wearer of the prototype jacket taking a stand next to New York's Fearless Girl statue. 

What did you think of Jigsaw’s pro-migrant worker campaign from earlier this year? 

I think it’s a good piece of advertising and positive message. I wish Jigsaw had accompanied it with some tangible action. What have they done to prove their commitment to the cause, other than write some words on a poster? Talk is cheap.

Can a brand ever be broadly successful if they embrace specific causes or would any sort of protest promotion always be the preserve of smaller brands?

I see no reason at all why a brand can’t influence a specific cause. Take BSkyB; they’ve set a great example by becoming the first UK corporation to ban single-use plastic in their entire manufacturing process and through all their offices. If every FTSE-100 corporation picked a cause and committed to changing it, the world would be a better place. Corporations are way more powerful than governments, in my view.

Above: Work in progress in the Brothers and Sisters office in London.

What was the hardest element of creating the Protest Jacket?

The process was a pleasure, to be honest. Not easy, but we were working with smart, creative, like-minded people. We set our own deadlines, we didn’t make any compromises. It’s projects like this that get me out of bed in the morning.

Are the Protest Jackets now available to buy and what’s your hope for them?

So far we’ve created five prototype Folk protest jackets. What happens next is up to everyone else. We’ve created a website folkprotestjacket.com, where we invite people who want to follow the continuing story of the jacket to leave their email address. If enough people do so, we may go into commercial production, or launch a kick-starter to make Protest Jacket 2.0. Watch this space.