Skip to main content

Tommy Hilfiger’s Xplore line of smart clothing is … not so smart after all

Image used with permission by copyright holder

It’s 2018, and we have lost sight of the definition of “smart.” Or at least, Tommy Hilfiger has. The fashion brand is the latest to offer so-called smart connected clothing, but rather than designing apparel that will track your heart rate, control your music, or offer navigational assistance like say, Levi’s smart jacket, Tommy Hilfiger’s clothes will reward you for … buying Tommy Hilfiger clothes. Someone send help.

The new Tommy Jeans Xplore garment line leverages embedded Bluetooth smart tags (which really could be used for cool, useful things!) to provide “one-of-a-kind rewards and experiences” to customers. The idea is that the more often you wear the clothes, the more points you’ll be able to earn. Think of it as Tommy’s thank you for being a brand ambassador — or rather, Tommy’s bribe to get you to exclusively wear their clothing.

Recommended Videos

Tommy’s new Xplore line spans both women’s and men’s collections, and also boasts a few unisex offerings. Currently, it’s available only in the United States both via Tommy Hilfiger’s website and the company’s flagship store located on 5th Avenue in New York City.

If you’re curious about just what Tommy wants to pay you to wear, the clothing options do seem pretty extensive, so at least you won’t be recycling the same outfits over and over again in hopes of earning those points. The line includes T-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, jeans, jackets, caps, and bags, all of which pair with the Tommy Jeans Xplore iOS app via Bluetooth. Once you’ve paired these clothes, you’ll be prompted to take part in challenges in order to garner points. Well, “challenges” is a strong word. You’ll be rewarded for wearing the clothes as often as possible, or for finding heart-shaped Tommy icons within the app’s map. I guess that’s fitness oriented?

Points you earn can then be turned into rewards like gift cards, signed merchandise, and items from the Tommy Hilfiger archives, to name a few, the company notes.

It’s unclear exactly how successful this program will be, especially since it seems to cater almost exclusively to Tommy super fans who really want to wear a lot of the brand’s clothes all the time. But hey, if it works, it could open up a whole new world for brands looking to add the word “smart” into their marketing materials.

Lulu Chang
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
Digital Trends’ Top Tech of CES 2023 Awards
Best of CES 2023 Awards Our Top Tech from the Show Feature

Let there be no doubt: CES isn’t just alive in 2023; it’s thriving. Take one glance at the taxi gridlock outside the Las Vegas Convention Center and it’s evident that two quiet COVID years didn’t kill the world’s desire for an overcrowded in-person tech extravaganza -- they just built up a ravenous demand.

From VR to AI, eVTOLs and QD-OLED, the acronyms were flying and fresh technologies populated every corner of the show floor, and even the parking lot. So naturally, we poked, prodded, and tried on everything we could. They weren’t all revolutionary. But they didn’t have to be. We’ve watched enough waves of “game-changing” technologies that never quite arrive to know that sometimes it’s the little tweaks that really count.

Read more
Digital Trends’ Tech For Change CES 2023 Awards
Digital Trends CES 2023 Tech For Change Award Winners Feature

CES is more than just a neon-drenched show-and-tell session for the world’s biggest tech manufacturers. More and more, it’s also a place where companies showcase innovations that could truly make the world a better place — and at CES 2023, this type of tech was on full display. We saw everything from accessibility-minded PS5 controllers to pedal-powered smart desks. But of all the amazing innovations on display this year, these three impressed us the most:

Samsung's Relumino Mode
Across the globe, roughly 300 million people suffer from moderate to severe vision loss, and generally speaking, most TVs don’t take that into account. So in an effort to make television more accessible and enjoyable for those millions of people suffering from impaired vision, Samsung is adding a new picture mode to many of its new TVs.
[CES 2023] Relumino Mode: Innovation for every need | Samsung
Relumino Mode, as it’s called, works by adding a bunch of different visual filters to the picture simultaneously. Outlines of people and objects on screen are highlighted, the contrast and brightness of the overall picture are cranked up, and extra sharpness is applied to everything. The resulting video would likely look strange to people with normal vision, but for folks with low vision, it should look clearer and closer to "normal" than it otherwise would.
Excitingly, since Relumino Mode is ultimately just a clever software trick, this technology could theoretically be pushed out via a software update and installed on millions of existing Samsung TVs -- not just new and recently purchased ones.

Read more
How does Garmin measure stress, and is it really accurate?
Garmin Vivomove Sport dial close up. Credits: Garmin official.

Garmin watches are known for their robust activity tracking, but that's not all these fitness watches can do. Over the years, the company has been adding wellness features to its lineup of watches. These new health-focused metrics allow people to analyze their fitness and identify outside factors affecting their performance. One such factor is stress, which is something Garmin watches actively measures.
But you may be wondering—exactly how does Garmin measure stress? In this article, we break down how Garmin measures stress and delve into the accuracy of this metric. Should you trust your stress score? Read on to find out.

Is Garmin's stress score accurate?

Read more