WHAT'S UP WITH ALL THAT FABRIC ON YOUR GADGETS?

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EARLIER THIS YEAR, when Microsoft showed off its new Surface Pro laptop, one part of the device stood out. The sleek tablet-PC hybrid was made, predictably, out of aluminum and glass, but its keyboard was covered in a soft-suede like fabric. Alcantara, specifically, the same material used in cars and designer handbags.
“Everyone we showed had the same reaction: Whoa, that’s cool,” says Ralf Groene, head of industrial design for Microsoft devices. “And then some people got concerned. They said, you can't put fabric on laptops; no one puts fabric on laptops.”
For the most part, that's been true. But recently, textiles have begun creeping into consumer electronics in a very real way. Earlier this month, Google showed off a line of products, a few of which were also covered in knitted fabric. Wrapped around the Google Home Mini and Max is a soft polyester-nylon fabric that the company developed from scratch. “Someone described these products as friendly,” says Isabelle Olsson, Google Home’s head of industrial design. “I took that as a compliment, because that’s exactly what we were going for.”

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