Count me as seriously impressed! These revolutionary new gloves have amazing potential. We live in an mind-bending time when an individual with a well-thought out idea and a vision can go real, big real fast. Gotta love that! I’m looking forward to giving these a try. What do you think of these new ‘turn signal bicycle gloves? Genius or Folly?
Gloves with built in turn signals that let you visibly and effortlessly signal your intent on the road.
A big reason why cyclists in America don’t ride more often is because of the fear of being seriously injured or killed by a car. Zackees Turn Signal Gloves address these problems by putting a bright turn signal where it matters most: right on your hands. Easily signal in front of you without taking your hands off the handle bars!
Whether you’re on a bike, skateboard, or out for a run be seen, show your intent, and do it in a way that’s natural.
The Gloves
With the Turn Signal Gloves, you just put on your gloves and go. There’s no “on” switch, just a couple of contact pads that let you be seen. No learning curve. Just added safety, style, and confidence out of the box.
What makes them so great?
Washable. The turn signal electronics are protected with a water proof coating, allowing you to wash your gloves like other delicate clothing.
Super bright LEDs. How can they be so bright when using such a small battery? Efficiency. Our LEDs are some of the most efficient on the market at converting power into light.
Long battery life. We hate changing batteries as much as you do. That’s why we made your gloves smart enough that they automatically adjust their brightness to match your environment.
Metal contact switch. We spent months making the perfect activation switch. We found that metal rivets are by far the most natural to use and the sound they make is strangely addicting.
Durability. We use premium thread, ultra-flex wire and we encase the electronics in a durable polymer. These gloves are designed tough.
Using the Gloves
The gloves are designed such that you can signal in front of you without having to take your hands off of the handle bars. Signaling behind you is easy as well; simply extend your hand and press the contact plates together. The light will flash toward drivers behind you so that they can see your intent.
Signaling Behind: Changing Lanes
You may find yourself needing to get around a car that’s blocking the bike lane. Extend your left hand and active the turn signal gloves and check the lane for oncoming traffic. Signaling your intent before you pop out of that bike lane will go a long way in making your intent clear, keeping you safer from other drivers sharing the road.
Signaling Behind: Turning Right
Bikes and skateboards typically don’t have brake lights that show drivers that you are slowing down. When you’re using the same lanes that cars use, this can be dangerous. The turn signal gloves make it obvious that you are about to change direction, letting drivers know that they need to be cautious of their speed.
Signaling in Front: Turning Left
You are approaching an intersection. Is that car coming toward you going to turn right, turn left, or go straight? Do they see you? Make sure you’re clear about what you plan to do to take confusion out of this situation. The turn signal gloves make this easy.
Signaling in Front: Turning Right
You approach a four way stop at the same time as the car in front of you. The car in front wants to turn left. You want to turn right. Who has right of way? The person making the right turn? Or the person in the bigger vehicle? The law says it’s you. Be seen and make that clear.
Crossing an Intersection
It’s getting dark and you have to cross a busy intersection. Signal your presence using the turn signal gloves and take the risk out of getting home from your run.
Battery Types
The gloves support two types of batteries, rechargeable and disposable. The rechargeable batteries can deliver larger bursts of power and we have tuned the gloves to be the brightest when using the rechargeable battery. With disposable batteries, we have optimized the performance of the gloves for improved battery life. The gloves can detect which batteries have been installed and adjust their performance accordingly. A low battery is indicated with quick, dim blinks of the signal.
USB Battery Charging
We couldn’t find a charger for the rechargeable coin cell batteries that met our standard of quality, so we are creating our own!
The charger is simple in its design, safe, and easy to use. Just plug it into any USB port and insert your batteries to start charging.
About the Maker
Zach Vorhies
Founder of Zackees. Prior to starting Zackees I was a Software Engineer at Google for five and a half years where I was known for integrating Google Earth into the Audi Navigation system for the A8 (and later other car lines). Url: http://y2u.be/t_YlOMrSm2I
I started working with electronic clothing in 2010 when a friend of mine in Fashion crashed at my house after burning man. I’ve been hooked ever since. In April of 2013 I invited New York fashion designer, Wheylan Dean-Ford, to make electronic clothing with me. We came up with five designs which can be seen at www.futuretechwear.com. One of these designs was our earliest prototype of the Turn Signal Gloves. From April until now I’ve been improving the look, usability, and durability. In August of this year I realized that I had something very special but it became clear that I could not bring these Turn Signal Gloves to market as a hobby. Therefore after much soul searching I decided to leave Google in August and dedicate my time to bringing my Turn Signal Gloves to the market.
For more info go to their website
3 Comments
The problem that I have is that the light is on one side of the glove, so you can’t show the signal to oncoming and following traffic at the same time. Also, the hand signal for RIGHT turn is to extend the left arm, bend the elbow 90 degrees so the hand is up. Using that as a LEFT turn signal just because you have a fancy light on your glove doesn’t make sense to me.
Agreed. It’s a good idea but the standard (and legally defined) turn signal for bicyclists in California is “point left with a straight left arm to go left” and “point right with a straight right arm to go right (or point out and up with a left arm like a driver as Jerry described)”. Pointing toward where one is headed is the most clear communication, whether that means turning left, right, or even going straight through an intersection. Therefore the arrow should be pointing towards the fingers to enhance a bicyclist’s legal turn signals, and not toward the pinky finger.
If you are able to change the design to accommodate this then I would be happy to promote your product to the thousands of people who attend the East Bay Bicycle Coalition’s free bike skills and education classes we host every year.
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