Integrating functions in cold weather jackets, particularly if they are useful in those climatic conditions, is a sensible and successful approach. the iPOD jacket is possibly the most common form of smart clothing in the current market.

Motorola and Burton Snowboards Audex wearable electronics jacket

Motorola and Burton Snowboards jointly supply the Audex wearable electronics collection at the 2006 Burton New Zealand Open Snowboarding Championships. Available at select Burton Authorized Retailers this month, the new 2007 Audex collection offers the ultimate blend of technology and snowboard function, enabling easy wireless communication and music entertainment for consumers on the move. The Audex Bluetooth Stereo System allows consumers to stream downloaded music wirelessly from a compatible Bluetooth enabled mobile phone to the Audex jacket allowing users to listen to music and make calls with a push of a button on the jacket sleeve. Outerwear styles that feature this system include built-in DJ-style speakers in the hood and/or an integrated headphone jack.

Burton-owned impact protection company R.E.D. also partners with Motorola to offer two helmet styles and one beanie style that feature Bluetooth technology, allowing users to pick up calls and listen to music from a compatible mobile phone without taking off the hat or helmet.

Kenpo iPod jacket

Kenpo Jacket for iPod range has a wide number of styles and colours including bubble jackets (some with fur-lined hoods), sleek sprinter’s jackets, snowboarding jackets and windbreakers. Wearers can pause, skip tracks and adjust volume, without fumbling with awkward zippers and gloves, or hard to get to pockets, all the while leaving one’s iPod tucked away in the jacket's inner padded pouch. There's also a new locking feature that prevents the settings from being changed due to accidental bumping.

Kenpo's technology enabled line of jackets employs ElekTex "smart fabric" touch pad technology to transform the sleeve into a 5-button electronic control panel for use with all iPod models (expect for the iPod Shuffle). Absent of any wires or a metal contact, the jacket is machine washable, completely self-powered and requires no batteries.

Zegna Sport Bluetooth iJacket

A new jacket design from Zegna Sport will allow wearers to simultaneously listen to their iPod and talk on their cell phone utilizing a controller embedded in the jacket sleeve. The Bluetooth iJacket has been made using smart fabric switch and conductors from the Eleksen.

Dubbed “communication clothing”, the garment enjoys dual electronic functionality via Eleksen’s 100 per cent fabric ElekTex touchpad which is not only lightweight but waterproof too. Whilst the sleeve contains a device to control the cell phone and iPod, the collar has its own purpose too - a bluetooth interface and microphone are embedded to allow the wearer to dial and talk on their phone. As a call is received the music volume automatically drops to make the wearer aware of the call and the sleeve control panel switches to phone control mode. The smart fabric is a micro-nylon which has a smooth exterior and is thermally taped to ensure that all of the inner workings of the jacket are secure and protected from water damage, even during washing.

ScotteVest iPod jacket

ScotteVest supply a range of styles of the now common ‘iPod jacket’.

The Solar SCOTTEVEST (SeV) System combines the electronic IpoD jacket Version Three.0 Finetex with Fleece liner and removable solar panels. The solar panels enable recharging most USB compatible devices on the go, either while wearing the jacket or with the panels removed. When attached, the solar panels compliment the jacket’s design. The solar panels charge a small battery - about the size of a deck of cards. The battery powers the device almost immediately after the solar panels are exposed to sunlight. Once the battery is fully charged, the panels can be removed.

The PAN, or Personal Area Network, is integrated into ScotteVest's Technology Enabled Clothing providing jacket-pocket holes and fabric conduits that connect all the gadgets to each other without exposing any wires. So what appears to be an unassuming anorak jacket is really a web of wires and technology in disguise.

The jacket's solar panels use CIGS (copper indium gallium diselenide) technology, a thin, flexible, lightweight, energy-efficient and highly sun-sensitive type of solar cell.