NEW YORK — Fresh off his first New York Fashion Week, Intel’s chief executive officer Brian Krzanich was back in town Friday, talking up the Maker movement at the Chelsea boutique Story.
In town for the World Maker Faire, his cameo also touted the Intel Galileo board, among other futuristic products on view. After the meet and greet, Krzanich told WWD a bit about Intel’s outlook on wearables and his take on fashion.
Having teamed with Opening Ceremony for the design of its My Intelligent Communication Accessory (or MICA) bracelet, Krzanich caught the company’s fashion shows at Milk Studios and its Spike Jonze-directed play at the Metropolitan Opera. “I probably enjoyed the play a little more, because the subject was a little different for me. I liked the concept of having models as part of the play and showing that models have more skills than just walking,” he said. “Isn’t the whole idea to do something that’s going to upset half the people and excite the other half? That’s how change occurs and you stay on the edge. That’s what some people have told me, and I’m an engineer, so I don’t know.”
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MICA’s secondary role in the production was another bonus. “I remember sitting there, thinking, OK, here I am. Yoko Ono is on one side, Jonah Hill is a few people over, Intel products are onstage with a bunch of models. Robert Noyce is just rolling over,” Krzanich said. “The Intel founders just never would have thought that would be Intel product up there.”
Although short on specifics, Intel’s chief said the company “is trying to do partnerships across the wearable spectrum” and may introduce eyewear, apparel, watches and/or footwear next year. “Oh gosh, the way I think about it, you could just go through your body, so shoes, clothing….We’ve shown smart shirts that measure heart rate, perspiration, all kinds of things. Then you can go to your wrists, watches and all kinds of things,” he said. “Our theory on wearables is that if you take a tech company and make a wearable, it looks like a tech-company wearable. It’s kind of cool. We make a lot of them, and we think they can do really well. But these big brands are very good at this….So rather than we make eyewear that’s smart, why not go find some of the better eyewear manufacturers and say, ‘Why don’t we make something great together? You do the design, and I’ll do the technology.’ ”
With MICA, which will make its debut for holiday, Intel, a $52.7 billion juggernaut, is targeting socially active women and found the right partner in that space, Krzanich said. During the development stage of MICA, Krzanich’s wife wore a prototype and discovered how much information — “text and Facebook messages, all this stuff for the kids and work partners” — she had been missing by keeping her smartphone in her purse, he said. With MICA, she got all of that in real time and felt that much more connected, Krzanich said. “I think that’s what’s going to drive people to this business. It’s about being connected. I don’t know that it’s [a feeling of] warmth. I don’t use words like that. Connected makes you warm, I guess.”
Most of Intel’s potential wearable partners have some sort of combination of freestanding stores and e-commerce. “Nobody does just one or the other anymore,” he said.
Sales for these yet-to-be-proven products are tough to predict. “We have no idea. All of these are somewhat experiments, too. We think MICA is a great product. We actually think it’s priced fair and it’s about great design. And we have no idea how many we’re going to sell. We put out Galileo boards and we sold six times our first estimate,” he said. “These are all new, so we’re just putting them out there to see what the market wants.”
The fashion scene is another puzzle for Krzanich. “I find the whole thing curious, to be honest with you. It’s just so different. When somebody judges or looks at technology, you can measure the advancement of it well. ‘Oh, you did that in three steps instead of four,’ or ‘Look, you were able to compact that to this,’ or ‘You’re using one-tenth the battery power of the last guy who tried to do it.’ Fashion has no measurement system, so I find that…how do you judge it? I think it’s so curious. So I sat there in that play, thinking, Well, this is a lot easier to watch than a bunch of people walking down the stage, or at least it’s going to keep me interested.”
Krzanich isn’t the only top executive to have dropped by Story recently. Target’s ceo Brian Cornell was among the first to check out Style.Tech at Story, which transforms its space every few months based on a new theme.