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TENNIS HAS an emotional impact that isn’t confined to the court. Consider the ball boy, who speeds the game along by retrieving stray balls for the players.
网球对情绪的影响不仅在球场内。以球童为例，他们给球员捡球，这有助于加快比赛节奏。
“It’s fascinating to see this guy at the peak of his youth and his health, to watch the stress that he’s under when Roger Federer is handing him a ball,” David Lauren said last week, just days before the United States Open, which starts on Monday.
“这个球童正当青春，正是最健康的时候，你看罗杰·费德勒(Roger Federer)递给他球时，他感到有压力了，这真有趣，”大卫·劳伦(David Lauren)上周说。当时离周一（8月25日——译注）开幕的美国网球公开赛只有几天时间。
“You can actually see his heart rate spike,” said Mr. Lauren, who has monitored those activities remotely. “You can see his breathing.”
“你真的能看到他的心跳猛然加速，”劳伦说。他从远处监视那些活动。“你能看见他的呼吸。”
Mr. Lauren, the executive vice president for advertising, marketing and corporate communications for the Ralph Lauren company and a son of the designer, isn’t cyberspying, nor is he tricked out with some newfangled sensor providing access to his subject’s inner workings. It’s the ball boy who will, in a manner of speaking, be wired.
大卫·劳伦是拉夫·劳伦的儿子，是公司负责广告、市场推广和公司交流的执行副总裁。他不是在进行网络监视，也没装备什么新奇的感应器去感受观察对象的内在活动。从某种意义上说，要被装上新奇设备的是那个球童。
Come Monday, ball boys at the Open will be trying out, in full view of fans around the globe, the sexy nylon T-shirt that marks Ralph Lauren’s entry into the rapidly advancing world of wearable technology.
周一，美国网球公开赛的球童们将会在全世界面前试穿性感的尼龙T恤，它标志着拉夫·劳伦公司进入了快速发展的可穿戴技术世界。
“Everyone is exploring wearable tech watches and headbands and looking at cool sneakers,” Mr. Lauren said. “We skipped to what we thought was new, which is apparel. We live in our clothes.”
“大家都在探索融合可穿戴技术的腕表和发带，关注酷酷的运动鞋，”劳伦说，“我们跳到我们曾认为新鲜的东西上，那就是服装。我们生活在自己的服装里。”
What spectators will see this week is a slick, form-fitting black athletic shirt, the Ralph Lauren polo pony emblazoned on the front. What they won’t see is the conductive silver-coated thread that is woven discreetly into the fiber, one that, according to the company, makes that shirt the first item of tech apparel to be introduced by a mainstream fashion label.
本周观众将看到的是光滑、合体的黑色运动衫，胸前印有拉夫·劳伦的马球赛马徽标。他们看不到的是悄悄缝入面料中的涂银线，据该公司说，这种面料让这款运动衫成为首批由主流服装品牌推出的技术服装。
No, the shirt won’t answer your smartphone, fire your ignition or get you a date. What it will do, among its varied functions, is monitor your heart rate, breathing and stress levels, collecting data that is displayed on a dashboard, phone app or computer screen — all that without compromising its racy good looks.
不，这件运动衫不能帮你接电话，帮你点火，或者给你找个约会对象。它能做的包括监测你的心率、呼吸和压力水平，这些数据可以显示在汽车仪表盘、手机应用程序或电脑屏幕上——所有这些都不会影响它那活力十足的漂亮外观。
“We want to control the technology and make it applicable to our life in a way that is refined and comfortable,” Mr. Lauren said.
“我们想控制技术，把它应用到我们的生活中，让我们的生活精致、舒适，”劳伦说。
That is, no distracting hardware, not a disk, wire or tube in sight.
也就是说，看不到让人分神的硬件、光盘、传输线或电子管。
“Nothing clunky that you have to strap on,” he said. “You’re just putting on a shirt.”
“你不必穿戴任何笨重的东西，”他说，“你只需穿上一件运动衫。”
One, he might have added, that flaunts the sort of streamlined aesthetic that has been mostly missing from the marketplace.
他可能还补充说，这款运动衫彰显了市场上大多数运动衫缺乏的流线形审美。
Rachel Arthur, a global senior editor at WGSN, a trend forecasting firm, said, “No one has produced a wearable that is 100 percent bang-on in terms of what mass consumers will want.”
雷切尔·亚瑟(Rachel Arthur)是潮流预测公司WGSN的全球高级编辑。她说，“从大众消费者想要的角度讲，还没有人生产出百分百合适的可穿戴产品。”
Fashion, she maintained, has yet to attractively fuse with technology.
她坚持认为，技术仍需与时装巧妙结合。
“We all know this is the future, but in terms of beautiful design, it’s not there yet,” she said. “It has to be something we want to use.”
“我们都知道这是未来的趋势，但是从设计优美的角度讲，还没人做到，”她说，“它必须是我们想用的某种东西。”
Geek-friendly but stylish, in short.
简而言之，它要适合极客们的口味，又要很时髦。
Robert Scoble, a blogger and champion of technological progress, said: “The things that are on your skin need to feel empathetic and beautiful. They need to be nice to the touch and not hang on your clothes.”
罗伯特·斯考伯(Robert Scoble)是一位博主，也是技术进步的拥护者。他说：“你皮肤上的东西需要能够感受你，同时又很漂亮。它们得摸起来舒服，不能挂在你的衣服上。”
It’s a mandate that Team Lauren plans to address, integrating technology into everyday wear. In the first half of next year it will introduce, alongside the athletic shirts, tech-enhanced classic dress shirts at Ralph Lauren stores. The shirts, which have yet to be priced, will represent a portion of a projected multibillion-dollar business that will include tech products as well as new collections of contemporary streetwear.
这正是是劳伦团队计划完成的使命：把技术融入日常服装。明年上半年，拉夫·劳伦的店铺除了将推出那些运动衫外，还将推出用技术改良的经典礼服衬衫。那些衬衫还没定价，它是价值预计在数十亿美元的项目的一部分，该项目将包括技术产品以及新的当代街头服饰系列。
In a sense, the company explored the tech concept years ago. Back in the mid-’90s, the Ralph Lauren company, which for some years has been a sponsor of the United States Olympic team, the Open and Wimbledon, introduced carbon-fiber jeans and ski jackets with MP3 players threaded into the sleeves.
从某种意义上讲，这家公司多年前就探索过技术概念。拉夫·劳伦公司早些年曾是美国国奥队、美国网球公开赛和温布尔登网球公开赛的赞助商，90年代中期，它推出了碳纤维牛仔裤和把MP3播放器装在袖子中的滑雪衫。
At the time, those jackets met with a lukewarm reception, Mr. Lauren acknowledged.
劳伦承认，当时顾客对那些滑雪衫的反应比较冷淡。
“Not everyone knew how to use MP3 players,” he said.
“当时不是每个人都知道怎么使用MP3播放器，”他说。
He is confident, though, that wearable tech is only now hitting its stride. He went on to predict that the tech-infused shirts, produced in collaboration with OM, a Canadian company known for so-called biometric smartwear, would be a game-changer. And an image transformer to boot.
不过，他确信可穿戴技术现在刚进入状态。这批融合新技术的衬衫是和加拿大的OM公司合作生产的，该公司以生产所谓的生物计量智能服装著称，他预测这种衬衫将是革新性的，此外还有助于改变公司的形象。
“So many people think of Ralph Lauren as a preppy New England brand, but we love playing with the stereotype,” he said. “We’re not all mahogany and vintage chandeliers.”
“很多人认为拉夫·劳伦是新英格兰学院风格的品牌，但是我们乐于改变这种固有想法，”他说，“我们不都是桃花心木和复古枝形吊灯。”
