Connor Renwick: Clever Ep. 142: Pioneer of Wearable Technology Rebeccah Pailes-Friedman

Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Clever Ep. 142: Pioneer of Wearable Technology Rebeccah Pailes-Friedman

On this episode of Clever podcast, Amy Devers talks to product designer Rebeccah Pailes-Friedman, who grew up in rural New Hampshire in a family with a rich tradition of craft. By the second grade, she was making all her own clothes and knew how to use all the power tools in her grandfather’s woodshop. Her high school track coach worked for Nike, which meant the team got to test out the goods and she had a front row seat to the R&D of performance wearables. She’s racked up over 25 years of experience designing products for athletes at companies like Nike, Champion and Fila. Now, as founder of Interwoven Design Group, she combines her expertise in wearable technology and functional apparel for clients ranging from startups to NASA, and runs circles around mere earthlings designing award-winning human-centered environments for outer space with SEArch+ (Space Exploration Architects.) And yep, she burns fiercely and brightly, like the superstar that she is. Listen:

Photo: Brooklyn Ballet 2018 \\\ Fiber optics were used in this bespoke TUTU designed by Interwoven for the Brooklyn Ballet’s production of the Nutcracker.

Lumanit combines materials research, making and form finding, while focusing on the future of textiles and technology for diverse applications, ranging from clothing to products and architectural installation. \\\ Photo: Rebeccah Pailes-Friedman