Ugly Christmas sweaters used to be given to you by a great aunt. The one who wears way too much perfume and didn’t recognize personal space when it came to pinching your cheeks. They were a piece of your wardrobe destined to find a spot in a moth ridden cardboard box in your attic.
Now in the age of ironic t-shirts and nostalgia the ugly Christmas sweater is back and is hip in a strictly ironic way. So much in fact, that according to a website (so it must be true,) today is National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day.
This is all good news for Mark Rober. He began his adult life as a rocket scientist. Really...like for NASA. Now however he makes interactive ugly Christmas sweaters and they are flying off the shelves. The sweaters are plenty ugly all by themselves but Rober added a small pocket to each one. You download a free app, slide your smart phone into the pocket and an interactive video plays, bringing your ugly sweater to life.
There are several different sweaters that pair up with their own app video. There’s a burning fireplace, a gingerbread man getting his head eaten and Santa getting stuck in the chimney just to name a few.
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Rober says they sold hundreds of thousands, selling out of their stock quickly but that the sweaters are now available on Amazon (AMZN). We also found plenty to choose from on eBay (EBAY).
The idea originally came from a Halloween costume Rober constructed for himself back in 2011. Using two iPads facetiming with one another he was able to make it appear as if there was a hole in his body. A video of the costume went viral online and the project sparked his interest in the marriage of clothing and technology. The rest (including life as a rocket scientist) is history.
Whether you have the latest and greatest in technology in your sweater or you dug out that horrendous “thing” auntie gave you 20 years ago -- Happy National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day!
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