Smart textiles products and services in sustainable context

Smart textile products present a bigger risk for the environmental sustainability than most other textile products. However, smart textile products also offer opportunities for the development of unique services that would generate additional value and sustain meaning in a societal and economic context. In this article we describe our designs for three smart textile products with a different level of integration of textiles and technology and different use case scenarios. These designs were interpreted by sustainability experts and analyzed along the lines of environmental, societal and economic sustainability. We present these multiple viewpoints and our own re-interpretation of the three designs by focusing on the energy use, story telling and personalization as the main opportunities for the development of sustainable smart textile services. With this paper we contribute by identifying a meaningful direction for the future development of smart textile products where the challenges of sustainability act as opportunities for the development of smart textile service