有互聯網思維的拉夫·勞倫運動衫

TENNIS HAS an emotional impact that isn’t confined to the court. Consider the ball boy, who speeds the game along by retrieving stray balls for the players.

網球對情緒的影響不僅在球場內。以球童爲例，他們給球員撿球，這有助於加快比賽節奏。

“It’s fascinating to see this guy at the peak of his youth and his health, to watch the stress that he’s under when Roger Federer is handing him a ball,” David Lauren said last week, just days before the United States Open, which starts on Monday.

“這個球童正當青春，正是最健康的時候，你看羅傑·費德勒(Roger Federer)遞給他球時，他感到有壓力了，這真有趣，”大衛·勞倫(David Lauren)上週說。當時離週一（8月25日——譯註）開幕的美國網球公開賽只有幾天時間。

“You can actually see his heart rate spike,” said Mr. Lauren, who has monitored those activities remotely. “You can see his breathing.”

“你真的能看到他的心跳猛然加速，”勞倫說。他從遠處監視那些活動。“你能看見他的呼吸。”

Mr. Lauren, the executive vice president for advertising, marketing and corporate communications for the Ralph Lauren company and a son of the designer, isn’t cyberspying, nor is he tricked out with some newfangled sensor providing access to his subject’s inner workings. It’s the ball boy who will, in a manner of speaking, be wired.

大衛·勞倫是拉夫·勞倫的兒子，是公司負責廣告、市場推廣和公司交流的執行副總裁。他不是在進行網絡監視，也沒裝備什麼新奇的感應器去感受觀察對象的內在活動。從某種意義上說，要被裝上新奇設備的是那個球童。

Come Monday, ball boys at the Open will be trying out, in full view of fans around the globe, the sexy nylon T-shirt that marks Ralph Lauren’s entry into the rapidly advancing world of wearable technology.

週一，美國網球公開賽的球童們將會在全世界面前試穿性感的尼龍T恤，它標誌着拉夫·勞倫公司進入了快速發展的可穿戴技術世界。

“Everyone is exploring wearable tech watches and headbands and looking at cool sneakers,” Mr. Lauren said. “We skipped to what we thought was new, which is apparel. We live in our clothes.”

“大家都在探索融合可穿戴技術的腕錶和髮帶，關注酷酷的運動鞋，”勞倫說，“我們跳到我們曾認爲新鮮的東西上，那就是服裝。我們生活在自己的服裝裏。”

What spectators will see this week is a slick, form-fitting black athletic shirt, the Ralph Lauren polo pony emblazoned on the front. What they won’t see is the conductive silver-coated thread that is woven discreetly into the fiber, one that, according to the company, makes that shirt the first item of tech apparel to be introduced by a mainstream fashion label.

本週觀衆將看到的是光滑、合體的黑色運動衫，胸前印有拉夫·勞倫的馬球賽馬徽標。他們看不到的是悄悄縫入面料中的塗銀線，據該公司說，這種面料讓這款運動衫成爲首批由主流服裝品牌推出的技術服裝。

No, the shirt won’t answer your smartphone, fire your ignition or get you a date. What it will do, among its varied functions, is monitor your heart rate, breathing and stress levels, collecting data that is displayed on a dashboard, phone app or computer screen — all that without compromising its racy good looks.

不，這件運動衫不能幫你接電話，幫你點火，或者給你找個約會對象。它能做的包括監測你的心率、呼吸和壓力水平，這些數據可以顯示在汽車儀表盤、手機應用程序或電腦屏幕上——所有這些都不會影響它那活力十足的漂亮外觀。

“We want to control the technology and make it applicable to our life in a way that is refined and comfortable,” Mr. Lauren said.

“我們想控制技術，把它應用到我們的生活中，讓我們的生活精緻、舒適，”勞倫說。

That is, no distracting hardware, not a disk, wire or tube in sight.

也就是說，看不到讓人分神的硬件、光盤、傳輸線或電子管。

“Nothing clunky that you have to strap on,” he said. “You’re just putting on a shirt.”

“你不必穿戴任何笨重的東西，”他說，“你只需穿上一件運動衫。”

One, he might have added, that flaunts the sort of streamlined aesthetic that has been mostly missing from the marketplace.

他可能還補充說，這款運動衫彰顯了市場上大多數運動衫缺乏的流線形審美。

Rachel Arthur, a global senior editor at WGSN, a trend forecasting firm, said, “No one has produced a wearable that is 100 percent bang-on in terms of what mass consumers will want.”

雷切爾·亞瑟(Rachel Arthur)是潮流預測公司WGSN的全球高級編輯。她說，“從大衆消費者想要的角度講，還沒有人生產出百分百合適的可穿戴產品。”

Fashion, she maintained, has yet to attractively fuse with technology.

她堅持認爲，技術仍需與時裝巧妙結合。

“We all know this is the future, but in terms of beautiful design, it’s not there yet,” she said. “It has to be something we want to use.”

“我們都知道這是未來的趨勢，但是從設計優美的角度講，還沒人做到，”她說，“它必須是我們想用的某種東西。”

Geek-friendly but stylish, in short.

簡而言之，它要適合極客們的口味，又要很時髦。

Robert Scoble, a blogger and champion of technological progress, said: “The things that are on your skin need to feel empathetic and beautiful. They need to be nice to the touch and not hang on your clothes.”

羅伯特·斯考伯(Robert Scoble)是一位博主，也是技術進步的擁護者。他說：“你皮膚上的東西需要能夠感受你，同時又很漂亮。它們得摸起來舒服，不能掛在你的衣服上。”

It’s a mandate that Team Lauren plans to address, integrating technology into everyday wear. In the first half of next year it will introduce, alongside the athletic shirts, tech-enhanced classic dress shirts at Ralph Lauren stores. The shirts, which have yet to be priced, will represent a portion of a projected multibillion-dollar business that will include tech products as well as new collections of contemporary streetwear.

這正是是勞倫團隊計劃完成的使命：把技術融入日常服裝。明年上半年，拉夫·勞倫的店鋪除了將推出那些運動衫外，還將推出用技術改良的經典禮服襯衫。那些襯衫還沒定價，它是價值預計在數十億美元的項目的一部分，該項目將包括技術產品以及新的當代街頭服飾系列。

In a sense, the company explored the tech concept years ago. Back in the mid-’90s, the Ralph Lauren company, which for some years has been a sponsor of the United States Olympic team, the Open and Wimbledon, introduced carbon-fiber jeans and ski jackets with MP3 players threaded into the sleeves.

從某種意義上講，這家公司多年前就探索過技術概念。拉夫·勞倫公司早些年曾是美國國奧隊、美國網球公開賽和溫布爾登網球公開賽的贊助商，90年代中期，它推出了碳纖維牛仔褲和把MP3播放器裝在袖子中的滑雪衫。

At the time, those jackets met with a lukewarm reception, Mr. Lauren acknowledged.

勞倫承認，當時顧客對那些滑雪衫的反應比較冷淡。

“Not everyone knew how to use MP3 players,” he said.

“當時不是每個人都知道怎麼使用MP3播放器，”他說。

He is confident, though, that wearable tech is only now hitting its stride. He went on to predict that the tech-infused shirts, produced in collaboration with OM, a Canadian company known for so-called biometric smartwear, would be a game-changer. And an image transformer to boot.

不過，他確信可穿戴技術現在剛進入狀態。這批融合新技術的襯衫是和加拿大的OM公司合作生產的，該公司以生產所謂的生物計量智能服裝著稱，他預測這種襯衫將是革新性的，此外還有助於改變公司的形象。

“So many people think of Ralph Lauren as a preppy New England brand, but we love playing with the stereotype,” he said. “We’re not all mahogany and vintage chandeliers.”

“很多人認爲拉夫·勞倫是新英格蘭學院風格的品牌，但是我們樂於改變這種固有想法，”他說，“我們不都是桃花心木和復古枝形吊燈。”