The Wonderclip helps users rediscover their wardrobe by tracking which garments go unworn for too long. A clip is attached to each piece of clothing. A colour-shifting LED gradually turns red the longer a garment sits untouched. A companion app links clips to a digital wardrobe and generates outfit suggestions from the clothes you use least, reducing the need to buy new clothing.
The Cliphub mounts to the back wall of a wardrobe and gathers data from each Wonderclip through a retractable cable. When a clip is taken off from a piece of clothing, the clip's timer is reset, and data is sent to the app. No button is required. The cliphub thus eliminates the need for individual batteries, data transmitters, and buttons, and centralizes these components. This increases sustainability and reduces cost.
The functional prototype shows roughly how the product will work. The user can press the button of the clip to start or reset the timer. The LED on the clip automatically goes from green to red when the timer is started. How fast the LED turns red can be determined by the user in the app. The user can link clips to clothing pieces, to keep track of how long clothing pieces have been unworn in a mobile app.
By centralising the battery, processor, and Bluetooth transmitter in the Cliphub base station, the per-unit manufacturing cost of each Wonderclip dropped 36%: from 70 cents to 0.45 cents. Fewer electronic components also means less e-waste at end of life. The automatic retraction mechanism keeps cables tidy and prevents clips from being lost.
