Tech start-up targets Birmingham to showcase its innovative products

A tech start-up has targeted a Birmingham department store to showcase some of the most innovative gadgets around.

Soda has opened a pop-up in Selfridges Birmingham to market some of the coolest new gadgets and gizmos to Christmas shoppers.

Soda – School of the Digital Age – was launched last year by 26-year-old Grace Gould. She opened her first boutique in Selfridges Oxford Street and has now launched the brand as a pop-up concession on the ground floor at the Bullring department store.

“We’re so excited to launch Soda in Selfridges Birmingham,” she said. “We like to think of ourselves as the truffle hunters of technology so have gathered a range of amazing products, including some that are exclusive to the city.”

The exclusive-to-store ranges include the Curiscope Virtualiti-Tee – an augmented reality t-shirt for children aged 3-14 that comes with its own app. You put on the shirt, download the app to your smartphone and put it on selfie mode, then watch augmented reality images of the body’s internal organs pop up.

Bare Conductive electric paint flashing cards are another Selfridges exclusive and are aimed at science-loving children. The light-up cards, created by cutting out a template, work by tracing a circuit with the special paint, then attaching an LED and battery.

Exclusive Soda Happy-ness Apple headphones use genuine Apple headphones, which are shipped to Istanbul, where they are weaved by hand to create colourful accessories for iPhones. They are practical too as the work protects the cables and helps to prevent them breaking. It’s also a gift with a conscience, as with every purchase a donation is made to a children’s autism foundation.

Soda’s exclusive collaboration with Fiorucci has produced four colourful phone cases that depict images from the Italian fashion brand’s archives, while the Chipolo smart key finder enables you to find your keys, laptop or phone (even if it is on silent mode). Press the button on the Chipolo and it will find your device within a 10-metre radius with a 92-decibel sound.

One of the more unusual items is the Lyfe levitating plant holder. Part science experiment/part art installation, this magnetic plant holder floats above a wooden base to create a unique centrepiece.

Sam Watts, general manager of Selfridges Birmingham, said: “We cannot resist smart brands that offer customers something different, so we were really keen to bring Soda to the city, especially as they have products that we’re sure will excite and surprise everyone, whatever their interest in technology.”