Welcome to Dead Tech, a little feature I’ll put on from time to time highlighting interesting tech monstrosities that fell to the swift blade of reality. The first installment is an ode to the Hug Shirt.
I actually have no idea if the Hug Shirt is Dead Tech or what has become of it since I first witnessed a demonstration of them at the Wired NextFest many moons ago, but as someone currently in a long distance relationship I can understand the need to feel physical connection with your partner. With the emergence of the Internet and cell phones it has become even more feasible for long distance relationships to emerge and prosper, and products that help such relationships last definitely have potential.
The Hug Shirt was a good idea – albeit a loosely defined version of “good” – but only as an idea.
Named one of the Best Inventions of 2006 by TIME magazine, the Hug Shirt even received interest from the U.S. Army for soldiers far from their families according to Textually, though there’s no mention of any deal or interest on parent company CuteCircuit’s news blog so odds are nothing came of that supposed interest.
The Hug Shirt worked as such: people wearing the shirt could squeeze the red portions of the Hug Shirt and that squeeze would be sensed by your cell phone via Bluetooth. A squeeze of equal force would be sent to your partner’s phone where they could accept the embrace and bask for a few seconds while the fabric squeezed around those areas.
There were a few problems that hit the well intentioned product.
- It was ugly, though it was meant to be an undershirt more than anything else.
- Both people had to be wearing the shirt, so basically you had to almost schedule the days you would use the Hug Shirt with your loved one. Wearing the shirt daily wouldn’t exactly be…hygienic.
That is why there are no more recent Google results for the Hug Shirt than late 2007 and probably why we won’t hear much about it. But at least we can enjoy watching some people looking goofy with these furry and hideous hug sweat shirts from Wired NextFest 2007.
Haha, I’m not sure why someone would even try this. It’s a general silly idea.
Okey, it would maybe sell if they could use it on the hole body, like a sex shirt, that would spice up phone-sex. But just a hug shirt, thats just teasing for more…