Louis Vuitton Gets Techie

Okay, so this is interesting, but it needs to be properly fleshed out in order to actually be cool – and I’m not sure what its ultimate purpose is, as of yet. Nonetheless, it feels exciting, which is usually the emotion elicited from us when we have the sense that something has potential to create change.

Speaking of emotions, here is the premise (courtesy of Jaunted): Louis Vuitton is rumored to be working on a bag accessory that will act as an “emotion monitor” by reading its owner’s heart rate and then syncing up with the owner’s mobile device, super-imposing this data onto a route map. Essentially, you would be able to look back along your strolls through Manhattan (or any lesser city – kidding, sort of!) and correlate where you were with how you were feeling at the time. Already, without the fancy monitor, I’m going to guess Saturday nights could get a little off-the-charts.

From Louis Vuitton’s perspective, this could provide interesting marketing data. From a consumer’s perspective, I’m just not sure how relevant it is to me to have my emotions monitored throughout the day as a function of where I’m going. As a psychology major, I think there are a lot of caveats to this program – we are continuously imprinted on by a myriad of factors in our environment. There is really no way to determine that it was physical location, as opposed to factors such as smell, social company or proximity to designer clothing that had our heart beat in a frenzy.

Also, why Louis Vuitton? How does this tie into fashion, beyond the fact that it attaches to a handbag and looks pretty? Once again, it’s cool, just because it’s always a bit cool when we remember we are biological beings…and we also seem to be obsessed with tracking things (Foursquare, anyone?) – but I’m not sure the concept has reached its full potential.

-Kristin