Sunday, December 6, 2009
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I'm sure you've seen them, those ubiquitous ads about the blanket with sleeves called the Snuggie. According to what I've read, millions have been sold, and it has become quite a phenomenon. However, I'm quite sure that 90% of them will end up getting very little use, and will eventually be consigned to the basement or the attic. The Snuggie, in my opinion, is the perfect example of an idea that sounds good but isn't.
The sellers of the Snuggie don't tell you much about it. It's a blanket with sleeves and, apparently, a tailored edge which fits around the neck. Since it is a blanket, I assume it doesn't close around the back -- meaning that it stays open like a hospital gown. From the pictures I have seen, it is apparently very long and could trip you if you walked in it.
So what can you do in a Snuggie? Well, you can sit, and you can hold a book or a TV remote -- and that's about it. But how many people spend long periods of time just sitting? Even TV-watching couch potatoes get up to get drinks and snacks, and to go to the bathroom. And every time they do, they'll have to pull their arms out of the sleeves, and then put their arms back in the sleeves when they return. It seems to me that an ordinary blanket would be more convenient. Personally, I spend a lot of time sitting at my desk working, and the large, floppy sleeves would get in my way immediately. And that's one of my main criticisms of the Snuggie: Large, floppy sleeves on any piece of clothing are incredibly annoying. They get in the way of any task you are performing. Even eating snacks in a Snuggie might be a problem: I can envision those floppy sleeves knocking over a glass or a bowl as you reach for your food. The sleeves on the Snuggie aren't tailored to anyone's individual size; they are one-size-fits-all. So whenever you do a task which involves holding your arms down instead of up, the sleeves will probably fall over your hands. Unless you have long arms, you'll have to hold the Snuggie's sleeves out of the way just to pick up a potato chip! So there really isn't much you can do with a Snuggie draped around you. You can't do any complicated tasks, and you can't walk, and you can't move around freely because the Snuggie might fall off (since it is open in the back). It seems to me that a sweatshirt or pajamas would be a better choice to stay warm.
Sweatshirts and pajamas are usually made of cotton, a natural material, and they don't harm the environment -- unlike the Snuggie, which is made of a synthetic material (i.e, some type of woven plastic). And this is what really bothers me: People don't think before they buy. Every year people buy millions of useful-sounding products which turn out to be useless, and most of them are made of plastic which takes THOUSANDS OF YEARS to biodegrade. If people would just stop and think before they buy, the environment would not be so endangered.
The sellers of the Snuggie don't tell you much about it. It's a blanket with sleeves and, apparently, a tailored edge which fits around the neck. Since it is a blanket, I assume it doesn't close around the back -- meaning that it stays open like a hospital gown. From the pictures I have seen, it is apparently very long and could trip you if you walked in it.
So what can you do in a Snuggie? Well, you can sit, and you can hold a book or a TV remote -- and that's about it. But how many people spend long periods of time just sitting? Even TV-watching couch potatoes get up to get drinks and snacks, and to go to the bathroom. And every time they do, they'll have to pull their arms out of the sleeves, and then put their arms back in the sleeves when they return. It seems to me that an ordinary blanket would be more convenient. Personally, I spend a lot of time sitting at my desk working, and the large, floppy sleeves would get in my way immediately. And that's one of my main criticisms of the Snuggie: Large, floppy sleeves on any piece of clothing are incredibly annoying. They get in the way of any task you are performing. Even eating snacks in a Snuggie might be a problem: I can envision those floppy sleeves knocking over a glass or a bowl as you reach for your food. The sleeves on the Snuggie aren't tailored to anyone's individual size; they are one-size-fits-all. So whenever you do a task which involves holding your arms down instead of up, the sleeves will probably fall over your hands. Unless you have long arms, you'll have to hold the Snuggie's sleeves out of the way just to pick up a potato chip! So there really isn't much you can do with a Snuggie draped around you. You can't do any complicated tasks, and you can't walk, and you can't move around freely because the Snuggie might fall off (since it is open in the back). It seems to me that a sweatshirt or pajamas would be a better choice to stay warm.
Sweatshirts and pajamas are usually made of cotton, a natural material, and they don't harm the environment -- unlike the Snuggie, which is made of a synthetic material (i.e, some type of woven plastic). And this is what really bothers me: People don't think before they buy. Every year people buy millions of useful-sounding products which turn out to be useless, and most of them are made of plastic which takes THOUSANDS OF YEARS to biodegrade. If people would just stop and think before they buy, the environment would not be so endangered.
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