Fashion

Congrats to Marika of Stirling, N.J., for winning last week's giveaway, a big bundle of back-to-school gifts.

Now, pun intended, it's time for this week's giveaway, a Tokyoflash Kisai Upload wristwatch. We've covered products from this purveyor of creative and sometimes perplexing timepieces before, and the latest model is just as eye-catching as the rest.

The futuristic-looking watch has an LCD display with a cryptic arrangement of lines and blocks that might make some wonder if you're a human bar code. Tilt your wrist to read the digital time at a glance (amusingly, Tokyoflash specifies that the optimum viewing angle is between 30 and 45 degrees). Push the lower button to display the date and the upper button to activate the colored LED backlight. … Read more

Princess Leia, eat your heart out.

If you need a little extra something in your struggle against the Galactic Empire, what better than this charming headdress? It's enough to stop a platoon of stormtroopers dead in its tracks.

But Blinklifier is no sci-fi film prop. It's the subject of research on feedback loops being presented at this month's 10th Asia Pacific Conference on Computer Human Interaction (APCHI 2012) in Matsue, Japan.

Tricia Flanagan of Hong Kong Baptist University and colleagues are proposing Blinklifier as a wearable computer that emphasizes the user's eye movements with a colorful … Read more

Safely riding a bike at night requires a bright headlight and reflectors at the very minimum, but Kilo, labeled as "the very first glow-in-the-dark bike," could change the game.

The concept of a glow-in-the-dark bike isn't totally new, as Zach Schau, co-founder of Kilo's parent company Pure Fix Cycles acknowledged in a phone call with Crave. Schau did suggest, however, that Kilo represents the first mass-produced glow-in-the-dark bicycle at a low price point (Puma experimented with the idea in 2008, but that version cost more than a grand). … Read more

Did you consider yourself a "weird" kid growing up? If so, we applaud you! Also, you could win a pair of Nikes.

Not just any Nikes, mind you. Nikes inspired by "ParaNorman," the stop-motion animated adventure that opened last week. The film centers on a misunderstood young outsider with unusual abilities, like being able to talk with the dead.

"You don't become a hero by being normal" declares the site for the shoe giveaway, which is being sponsored by Nike and Laika Studios, also maker of "Coraline," another film about a fantastical childhood. … Read more

Some people look at a pair of Nikes and picture a jog. Others look at the shoes and see each section of the sole as a lobe of the human brain. Put the designers at Wieden + Kennedy London in the latter category.

A team from the design firm made the shoe-brain connection when asked to participate in Nike78, a challenge that tasked designers with rethinking a pair of new Nikes.

Wieden + Kennedy got the Nike Free -- a shoe inspired by athletes who train barefoot to make their feet stronger -- and the designers looked at the segmented soles and saw gray matter. Nike Free Your Mind was born. … Read more

T-shirts have long been used to express opinions, assert individuality, and spread messages. The tshirtOS prototype is trying to become the first commercially available programmable, Internet-connected digital T-shirt.

The shirt is a joint venture between high-tech fashion company CuteCircuit and Scotch whisky maker Ballantine's. I'm not entirely sure what a high-tech T-shirt has to do with a venerable Scottish alcoholic beverage, but I'm sure there's a marketing tie-in here somewhere.… Read more

Move over Paris. Kashyyyk (aka Wookiee Planet C, G50623, or Edean) is now home to a booming galactic fashion accessory business.

The Chewbacca Messenger Bag is a semi-faithful replica of the bag sported by fuzzy Chewbacca in the "Star Wars" series. The strap looks like a flat version of the one Chewbacca wore. There's a subtle embossed "Star Wars" logo on the front. … Read more

Etsy has turned into quite the geek-craft haven. Case in point: you can pick up a pair of custom hand-painted Super Mario high-heel shoes.

The $115 paint job from Etsy seller magicbeanbuyer doesn't actually include the shoes. You'll have to send along a pair of your choosing to have the design applied. There is one pair of ready-to-go peep-toe heels available in size 8.5 for $142 if you can't wait.… Read more

The Strata from MetaWatch is a waterproof smartwatch that connects to your iPhone or Android handset via Bluetooth. You can receive calls, texts, e-mails, and Facebook and Twitter notifications via the watch, as well as use the integrated running and cycling app to track your workout.

Developers can also use the open-source software development kits for the watch, which is listed on the crowdsourced funding platform Kickstarter, to create Strata apps and widgets.

If you think all this sounds familiar, that's because the Pebble does exactly the same thing. … Read more