A handbag hangs on display in the window of a Kate Spade & Co. store in Corte Madera, California, U.S. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg)
A common qualm with wearable tech today is one that doesn’t go unnoticed—not by women at least. Between the disappointing 2016 CES and the tiring anomaly of unwearable wearables that have left female consumers keeping their checkbooks closed, one brand got it right but it didn’t happen overnight.
“I find it very interesting the history of tech in fashion and back in the day, a zipper was considered tech,” Everpurse co-founder Liz Salcedo says.
Everpurse for Kate Spade is a line of self-charging purses that boasts a minimal design for both the bags itself and its accessories. It has also become a blazing success since it’s 2015 fall launch. “Tech is incredible but it shouldn’t be at the forefront” says Salcedo. “Honestly, I think that’s where [wearable] tech has really arrived–when you don’t think of it as a separate add-on.”
A Partnership Made In Handbag Heaven
Partnering with a small startup called Everpurse, CMO and EVP of Kate Spade & Company Mary Beech says the decisions were nothing short of time-intensive before they felt they got it right. “We thought our brand could make a unique difference in terms of wearables and particularly, we looked at every potential partnership through three lenses, does it deliver on our customer centric brand promise, is it convenient, and does it complement her interesting life.”
Everpurse for Kate Spade
Everpurse for Kate Spade
Everpurse co-founder Liz Salcedo and her team very much approached the partnership from one of co-development, which is how they landed gold, Beech says. This was a design-led process–something they were as committed to as we were. We didn’t want it to be technology for technology’s sake and Everpurse delivered on those things.


The search for the perfect technology was no easy feat as Beech and company researched a handful of technologies and players for nearly a year. “Sometimes, it was they were unwilling to compromise, sometimes the technology was unable to be as incorporated as well into the product as we needed or it required us to have a knowledge in the technical arena that we didn’t,” she says. “So we really needed someone that could offer a level of expertise that we didn’t have and had a form factor or product that they were offering that was able to be incorporated into an existing bag.”
Part of the success, Beech says, was knowing what they brought to the table, but more importantly recognizing what they did not bring. “We take great pride in being an excellent partner and knowing what we don’t bring to the table which is knowledge of technology a knowledge of how to make the technology work so we found a partner who is willing to bring technology to the table, but needed design aesthetic and prowess and storytelling.”
Beech believes they got it right where many wearable companies get it wrong—not sacrificing great design for quality technology. “They [customers] want it all and they deserve it all, and it’s about being useful in the long term not just in the short term,” she says. “And I think all those things are missing out there today–the marriage of aesthetic and arts and technology as well as the long-term usefulness. Since we are customer-centric we always put her at the middle.”
Organic Growth Yields Payoff
Liz and Dan Salcedo were a 20-something couple working in non profit sector when Liz, a social worker at the time, needed to charge her phone but wanted to be inside the purse. “I played with it for months, perfecting it, changing things I didn’t like I started getting friends to borrow my bags and then asking for bags for them.
Though hackers of sorts, neither had a technical background but both knew one thing—what women want which was more of the same with little tech beneath. “It started off really organically until I realized I touched on something that women really wanted—tech made for them that they wanted to use and carry. And, it grew from there.”
After getting calls from different brands and friends wanting to buy them off Liz Salcedo left and right, she decided to go a different route—partnering with brands instead of being the sole provider. “We always wanted to make tech with brands that women love which is why we did a collaboration with Kate Spade,” The Everpurse co-founder says. “It was important to make something that already fits within women’s lives. We don’t want to compete with women’s favorite brands, we want to work with them.”
Beech agrees the key to a great wearable piece is one that looks really great and just has some extra benefits on the side. “That will ultimately be successful and the direction in which all the tech companies should be going.”
Salcedo says today’s disappointing wearables is a direct result of the lack of diversity in tech. “I think men are used to designing for men and has always been designed for men and we know that statistically women use smart phones more than men and are on social more than men and a huge portion of the buying power and I think when women design they tend to think more about usability and functionality. Women tend to think warm up the form factor and what I actually want to carry around. Even if it’s more difficult to engineer, we have to find a way. If I’m not going to use it I’m definitely not going to ask a customer to use it. And in my experience talking with many male engineers, that’s not usually how they think.”
Both Kate Spade and Everpurse did it right. They took their time—they didn’t settle for a collaboration that would reap benefits within the next holiday season or even the next year. They waited, they listened, and they’ve scored with what Beech says will bring even more of the collaborative design in 2016.
Salcedo says working with Everpurse is just an extension of her former role in social work. “I’ve gotten a lot of questions about, ‘this is so different from what you used to do’ but for me its very much in the same line of doing awesome things for awesome women.”