Headphones Built Into Your Hoodie and Other Tech Clothing Wonders

From a sweatshirt with built-in headphones to a backpack with a solar panel on the back, these high-tech garments are sure to intrigue any technology enthusiast.

The ScotteVest has been around since 2000–and no other garment lets you carry so many things at once. The original ScotteVest was a vest with 15 pockets; now you can buy all sorts of different apparel, including jackets, shirts, and even hats, ranging in number of pockets from 1 to 52.

To help anyone who needs to work with touchscreens in the cold, North Face came up with E-Tip gloves, whose finger tips are made of “X-Static,” a type of cloth with a layer of silver permanently bound to it. The metallic layer helps you transfer the heat from your skin to the screen–perfect for operating any device equipped with a touchscreen in cold weather .

The M-Dress is a concept design and won’t be available until 2011–but when it is, a woman wearing this techy garment will be able to answer calls simply by raising her arm to her ear. The tech in the wrist of the dress will accept a normal SIM card, but as yet it is designed to dial preprogrammed numbers only.

Halo Headphones conbine features of both headphones and a headband. The headband is designed to comfortably hold the headphones in place over your ears while you exercise or perform other activities. You can purchase the company’s high-fidelity speakers or just buy the headband and insert your own.

Dancepants (as yet only a concept design) will incorporate a kinetic music player powered by movements that the wearer makes while you run. This arrangement forces the wearer to keep up the pace in order to keep the music flowing. It sounds like a great way to stay motivated when out on a jog.

The Wired Series is a line of hooded fleece clothing with headphones built right into the drawstrings. The jacket, which uses HB3 technology, is machine washable, so you don’t need to remove the cord or earphones before throwing the garment in the wash.

Embedded in the sleeve of the NavJacket by O’Neill is a MyWay GPS unit that connects to your mobile phone; the GPS device uses a sleeve display via Bluetooth to guide you down the mountain. You can plan courses on your mobile phone or download them from the company’s site.

The OffGrid from Voltaic is a backpack with a solar panel charger built into its back surface. The panel can be removed and remounted wherever is most convenient and/or wherever gets the most sun. The pack also offers plenty of padded compartments for all your electronics.

The idea behind Sensible Music Headphones–another concept design–is to help the wearer feel bass tones through two vibration monitors. The company hopes to offer a special vest that will provide ideal places to clip the vibration monitors but you can use your own clothing to achieve the same effect.