Saturday, December 18, 2010

Techno Hoodies

Has anyone ever suffered from that age old dilemma of trying to get your headphones to go from your iPod to your ears while your iPod is in your pocket? Oh good. I haven't either. Old Navy on the other hand seems to think that many people struggle with this. Well get ready for a treat. Old Navy has recently come up with...TECHNO HOODIES! These marvels of modern technology have a plug in the right pocket which connects to your music device and the headphones come out the drawstring.

I learned about these on December 17th. It is now December 20th and they are completely sold out. It's completely understandable why these would be such a hot item. Now no one ever has to worry about the nuisance (oh wait, it was never really a nuisance) of taking the earbuds one and a half feet to your ears. Admittedly I would like to give Old Navy a high five for finding a way to incorporate technology into clothing, BUT I feel like they brought in a few new problems.

#1. The earbuds come out the end of the drawstrings and this is where most of my problems come from. Imagine you're trying to listen to music during school without your teacher noticing. Who ISN'T going to notice the fact that some kid has their drawstrings in their ear. Or, what if you're trying to tighten your hoodie while listening to music. Chances are you'll pull out your headphones. And what if you're just wearing your headphones and people are walking by. Nine times out of ten they will think you look like a weirdie for having your drawstrings pulled up to your ears.

#2. Drawstrings get in all sort of trouble on a hoodie. Because of their lack of attachment to the rest of the jacket they tend to swing anywhere and everywhere. Usually this doesn't matter, but at the end of these drawstrings there are miniature speakers on which the whole novelty of the sweater relies. If the headphones get caught in something and break you now essentially have a useless hoodie. Unless you'd like to wear it for real, which you wouldn't. Also, everybody knows that drawstrings are uneven at least 85% of the time. It would be ten times more annoying to have not only the drawstrings uneven but your headphones too. Unless of course the drawstrings aren't functional which would then make the point made in #1. invalid.

So I commend Old Navy for their first endeavor into the technology market. Not only that but great job considering this product sold out in three days. But in the future I hope their other similar endeavors are a lot less...how can I put this without sounding mean....stupid.