Zegna to Introduce “Solar-Powered Jacket”

The New Yorker ran a great article in its Sept. 24^th Style Issue about Ermenegildo Zegna’s new Solar-Powered Jacket, which is set to hit stores in November. Writer Henry Alford takes the jacket out for a three-week-long test-drive, figuring out how best to charge his cell phone and iPod, attracting lots of attention and, ultimately, obsessing over the jacket’s potential to take him off the grid entirely:

“I wondered what other appliances my jacket might be able to power. A visit to the Web site usbgeek.com brought into my life a small flurry of gadgets equipped with USB ports…Though the tiny vacuum cleaner for my computer keyboard (twelve dollars) has provided distraction and solace during my workdays, it is the eight-inch-tall refrigerator (thirty dollars) – it chills one can of soda – that most impresses me: I’m using the sun to chill the liquid that slakes the thirst that’s created by the sun.”

Engadget reported on the Solar Jacket way back in July:

“The Solar JKT is based around Interactive Wear AG’s iSolarX technology, and sports a number of solar modules around the neoprene collar that can pass energy through conducting textile leads for storage in a buffer battery or to charge a connected device directly.”