Levi’s introduces new Trucker jacket with Google’s Project Jacquard

Levi’s introduces new Trucker jacket with Google’s Project Jacquard at 8. This will come in two variants.

Levi’s new Trucker jacket powered by the Google’s Project Jacquard has been announced. The first Levi’s jacket powered Project Jacquard was introduced back in 2017, but that was significantly more expensive at $350. This time two new versions have been introduced. The standard Trucker Jacket will cost $198, while a Sherpa Jacket for colder weather will cost $248.

Levi’s is introducing the jacket in US, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, UK, France, Italy and Germany for now and has listed out select retail stores where these will be sold. It will be available from October 3. The Levi’s Trucker Jacket uses Jacquard technology from Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) team.

The jacket will let users answer calls, play music and even take photos right from the sleeve thanks to the smart textiles, which can understand gestures and haptic feedback from the user. As with other Jacquard devices, the Trucker jacket also has the Jacquard tag, which is the tiny computer that connects to the jacket to the Jacquard app.

This Jacquard tag is also what helps to translate the user’s interactions on the sleeve into commands that the app can carry out. According to Levi’s information page, the jacket lets users create their own abilities with the Google Assistant. They can issue requests like request weather or traffic and assign a particular gesture on the sleeve each task.

The jacket’s snap tag will lights up and vibrate to notify users of incoming calls and texts. It will also light if the user has left their phone behind. Users can just brush their cuff to respond to calls, texts. Gestures on the sleeves can also be used to control media, pause music, skip a song or hear the title of what is currently playing. The jacket can also trigger the camera on the user’s phone remotely with a simple gesture.

The cuff with the Jacquard tag also lights up when you get notifications.

There’s a dedicated Jacquard mobile app, where users can assign abilities to four different gestures, which work on the ‘smart’ cuff. One can also assign LED-coloured lights to specific notifications. Levi’s website says “the idea is to easily interact with your digital world without disrupting what’s going on in real life.”

The jacket has a dedicated Jacquard Tag, which controls all these gestures. Users have to pair the tag with the app on their phone and then insert into the jacket cuff. The tag comes with a micro USB charging cable so that users can charged. The tag has to be removed before the jacket is sent for a wash as this cannot be washed. The Levi’s Trucker jacket is compatible with iOS 10, Android 6.0.1 and higher.