12 months ago we revealed the CashCuff®, our vision for wearable payment utility with cash at hand whenever you need it. Using NFC technology the CashCuff requires no battery or external connection, such as your phone. The security is first class, with payments backed by MasterCard and MuchBetter giving you complete peace of mind. Fast forward 12 months and today, amid the COVID-19 pandemic and 'lockdown living' it feels like the CashCuff is well placed to provide the contactless payments in our new normal.

First public demo

Last April, at Tech&Beer in Cambridge, Andy got on stage with our data partners, Entsight, to share the concept with the crowd. If you've not been to T&B, these are vibrant evenings at the Bradfield Centre, a start-up hub on the Cambridge Science Park. There's always a good vibe to these events, with lots of cool tech things being discussed and explored in the auditorium and plenty of pizza and beer for everyone. After developing the concept, sampling and refining the user experience and most importantly, how it would fit, securely into the shirt we shared our vision - this is what we said about it at the time. 

 

Capturing the imagination

The CashCuff has certainly caught peoples imagination this year, from the BBC to the Business of Fashion, we've had a lot of interest in the products. The feedback has been amazing...

Wait, what? You're paying with your shirt? asks a wide-eyed barman as I swipe my cuff over his contactless card machine.

The DailyMail

Retailers love it

WHAT THEY THINK

Everyone can relate to doing that dance of digging around for your wallet or purse when your hands are full, which explains why contactless payments are so popular. Taking cashless convenience up a notch is this collection of tailored smart shirts from start-up DressCode.

THE METRO

The CashCuff is one of the newest examples of modern fashion-tech, a marriage of the simplicity of contactless payment with shirt tailoring.

INDUSTRY.FASHION

But we're not sat back, feet up, oh no the innovation doesn't stop here! We are currently exploring the expansion of the CashCuff into other areas such as access control and much more. We'll share more about this in the near future with further product demo's for sure.

We love wearables and wearable tech, it's a really exciting area that offers a lot of benefits to peoples daily lives. We believe there are many opportunities to make the clothes you wear, work for you, beyond the obvious visual and psychological benefits. 

The future of Fintech

Financial services of all kinds were going through a period of rapid change before the COVID-19 pandemic, this has been amplified in recent weeks with the move by retailers to only accept contactless payments. Thankfully we now have  the higher transaction value (now up to £45). The move away from physical cash has been driven by health reasons right now. We know that this is something that many people were concerned about, under the circumstances it feels like the best way forward and something that looks set to stay with us in the future.

The Cashless society

It's a term that we've all heard, and the CashCuff is certainly part of this vision. So what are the pro's and the con's? Whilst we could tell you everything that we know about the space, we think it's better to hear what others have to say. So here's a really good article from Medium by Banked, (who we have no connection with) they have written a lot about the Cashless Society, here's their view of what it can bring, warts and all.

Contactless is part of the new normal

The world has changed a lot over recent weeks, we are all finding our new normal. Social distancing is hard, we are social creatures, pack animals that thrive in groups, being apart is difficult, especially when that comes to family and friends. Even harder if these people are part of the frontline care and support - amazing people who are putting themselves in the firing line for the greater good.

Where will we be in another year?

Fingers crossed life will have returned to normal, bit by bit it feels like we are making progress to overcome this, one step at a time. The effect of COVID-19 has been massive - a massive loss of life, massive changes to everyone's daily routine, nothing and no-one is spared, we have all been tested like never before.

We are confident that will get through this, in the past week we have seen the city of Wuhan begin it's transition back towards normal life and we're hopeful that life will return to 'normal' - whatever that is - for everyone over the coming months. We are looking forward to happier times when we will be sharing more the CashCuff journey with you. Wishing you all good health, stay safe.