RFID Used Clothing: a social network in your trousers

If you want to live like common people and think poor is cool then you've got a friend in Martin Mairinger (most probably a graduate of St. Martins College). Martin recently won an artsy fartsy grant for his concept to sew an RFID tag into "USED Clothing" which can save information about the previous owner(s). Then when sold at a custom second-hand shop, the new buyer can access the clothing's history on-line "yielding interesting hook-ups" — 'cause people who dress the same think the same, dig. So let's see, Lonsdale T-shirt: where to buy a stiff pipe — narrow lapeled suit: discuss best-ever Who album — too-tight polyester shirt: find good lounge bar in East Village.

[Sean @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Kinda scary dont you think, 1984 anyone, where will you go next, i already know where you are headed....

[www.mygadgetbag.com @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Not that I would ever consider buying used clothing, but it would be neat to see where it's been...

[Flabby Boohoo @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Why is Mr. Bean standing next to a Vulcan?

[WizarDru @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Dude, that's Vidal Sasson creating "the Quant" on Mary Quant in one of most famous pictures to come out of Smashing London of the mid-60s. That's history in the making right there.

As for this idiotic RFID nonsense, is there anywhere people won't try and shoehorn these damn things? Pretty soon they'll try and sneak it in food so they can track where you go to the bathroom. Yeesh. I mean, other than possibly being featured on a future episode of CSI, who cares?

[Zezose @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

The intro is a shameless take off of William Shatner's "Common People" - right down to St. Martin's College! Fun though.

[Rocket Punch @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Finally! I can find out how many times has the previous owner used this ski mask I got from value village to rob a bank. cool~

[Thomas Ricker @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

#5, Shatner!? HAHAhahaha, we had no idea!!! Brutha, that's Pulp (the original artist). And yes, it's shameless. We make all sorts of obscure references which most readers never get, but when you do...whooo hooo, release the hounds!

#4, spot on. Mods rawk.

[Stephen VanDyke @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Now I can fully enjoy the National Geographic thrill of tracking and recording the common people I sleep with. First stop: grocery store!

[narco @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Pulp, great band they were. Even Jarvis' Relaxed Muscle is good. I feel the same way about Jarvis as I do Morrissey: total tool, but a damn good artist.

I'm partial to Pulp's stuff from the 80's -- the really dark, scary stuff from "Masters of the Universe" and light acoustic whatnots from "It." A friend of mine mentioned that Shatner redid "Common People" -- I've been meaning to hear it. I saw a video of him redoing Elton John's "Rocket Man" and it was amazin'.

Fishes,
narco.

[Dan @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

The Shatner (with Joe Jackson) version of "Common People" is just simply incredible. It's been playing on my local college radio station for several weeks now.

[petro @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

It scares me that there are people freely roaming the earth that think "common people" was written by william shatner. shiver.

[GTgadget @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

The embedding of RFID in wearable items is a pretty frightening concept. Even moreso because so many people would probably just go along with being tracked 24/7. Maybe this is how clothing stores will start to keep returns to a minimum. There goes a lot of clothing donations...or people will have to remember to rip out the RFID tags first. Shredded jeans could permanently be in style and I don't think anyone wants that either. "No wonder you wear husky; Too many trips to the donut shop, fattie!"

Male purchases of used RFID-tagged D+ sized bras would probably become a hot business though. I think I found a new Step 2. Profit, here I come.