At Manufacture New York, Wearable Technology merges with traditional fashion manufacturing & design to create beautiful, scalable products and enabling technologies for startups and Fortune 500 tech companies alike.
We are currently building a state of the art technology center for research into new production processes, materials, and crafting techniques specifically tailored for the fashion and textile industry. Led by Amanda Parkes, PhD, our Chief of Technology & Research, MNY seeks to create a new model for production research, creating the opportunity for previously undiscovered connections integrating traditional factory manufacturing techniques of fashion with new digital technologies and scientific processes, leveraging the proximity and expertise of the MNY fashion development, production and our talented designers’ studios.
Our Wearable Tech R&D Center will feature three inter-related technology labs:
Digital & Advanced Fabrication Lab
Soft Circuits & Wearable Electronics Lab
Biology & Chemistry Wet Lab
The Digital and Advanced Fabrication Lab will include cutting edge 3D printing, laser cutting, CNC weaving, and related digital fabrication processes, customized for fashion and textile applications. The Soft Circuits & Wearable Electronics Lab will allow fashion designers to learn and experience the technologies and processes of the rapidly expanding field of wearable electronics within the design language of fashion, including basic ‘soft’ electronics, conductive threads and inks, and flexible circuit manufacturing. The Biology & Wet Lab will serve as a kind of biological atelier providing facilities to investigate ideas ranging from the latest in sustainable dying and printing technologies to the development of new living growing materials such bacterial cellulosic textiles. The unique combination of these facilities in combination with traditional manufacturing creates the opportunity for cross-disciplinary development of new models of fashion production.
WAYS TO ENGAGE
Apply for Our Accelerator
A highly selective and dynamic program in its second year, our Wearable Tech Accelerator is curated by Amanda Parkes, our CTO, who works personally with a very small cohort of early stage startups to successfully produce, promote, manufacture and distribute their first product in wearables. She works with the entire Manufacture New York ecosystem to leverage our full services & resources across the fashion and tech industries.
Residencies, Collaboration & Public Education
In partnership government agencies & academic institutions, we are building an extensive education program for skills and training into the many new technological paradigms available within the facility. These include public education programs, in-house residencies of leading technologists and designers, and interdisciplinary collaborations which transcend existing models of fashion and technology development and provide expertise to the MNY community at large.
Consulting
For both funded startups and major corporations in the fashion and tech spaces, we serve as a bridge to commercial success in the space of wearable technology. We offer consulting services including customized 2-year and 5-year wearable tech strategic roadmaps, wearable tech trend reports & forecasting, research & development of prototypes for new wearables in the luxury, apparel, accessories, beauty, sports & health industries, as well as pathways to manufacturing & supply chain development, with a focus on domestic solutions whenever available. You can learn more about our Consulting Services HERE
Sponsorship Opportunities
The MNY Wearable Tech R&D Center is seeking partnerships with leading technology industry companies to develop and support our state-of-the-art facility. Please contact: for more information.