Investigating Consumer Purchase Intentions for Natural Versus Synthetic Smart Clothing in Health Monitoring System

Abstract

Smart clothing is an emerging innovation that combines textile materials with health monitoring technology. Although these garments are often made from synthetic fibers because of their technical advantages, there is growing interest in the apparel industry in using more sustainable alternatives, making natural fibers a promising option. However, limited research has examined how consumers evaluate natural versus synthetic smart clothing and how these evaluations influence their willingness to purchase these products. To address this gap, this mixed methods study examined consumers’ purchase intentions using the Stimulus–Organism–Response (S–O–R) framework. In this study, material type served as the stimulus; consumers’ perceptions of environmental impact, durability, health monitoring performance, and personal health benefits served as the organism; and purchase intention represented the response. A within-subject survey was conducted through Prolific, and 193 usable responses were collected from U.S. consumers aged 19–45. Paired-sample t-tests and multiple regression analyses were conducted using SPSS to address the research questions and test the hypotheses. The results showed that participants rated natural smart clothing more favorably across environmental, functional, and health-related attributes. However, perceived personal health benefits and health monitoring performance were the strongest predictors of purchase intention, while durability did not significantly influence intention. These findings contribute to understanding consumer evaluation of sustainable smart textiles and offer direction for future product development in the apparel industry.