Technology In Your Clothing: Are You Ready For Keyboard Jeans?

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Isn’t it terribly annoying having to take your laptop off your legs when you have to get up and do something else? With a new pair of technologically advanced jeans, your keyboard never has to leave them! And what about a hoodie with earbuds for strings? Yes, these are available.

Erik de Nijs and Tim Smit, of design company Nieuwe Heren, invented the jeans. They’ve dubbed them “Beauty and the Geek” (though we’re not sure that’s the best name) and they include a set of speakers, a wireless mouse and a keyboard embedded into the denim. According to Discovery.com. “The jeans were designed to ‘combine fashion and technology,’ de Nijs told WebProNews. ‘The idea was that you could log in to your computer and control it without sitting in a closed environment behind your desk.'”

“The right back pocket has been specially designed so the mouse fits snugly inside,” explains Discovery. “The mouse is connected to the jeans via a strip of elastic and the pants come with a USB device that plugs into users’ computers so a wireless connection can be maintained.”

Discovery noted, “the jeans veer into the is-this-really-necessary category. However, the keyboard’s ergonomic, left-thigh placement of the alphabet could be Beauty and the Geek’s saving grace. But with the return key unfortunately located in the jeans’ crotch, I’m envisioning some very strange stares, perhaps even a call to the decency police, should you choose to peck away in public.”

If you’re interested, don’t get out your checkbook just yet. “The whole project is too complex and we don’t have enough money right now to to get it ready for the market,” de Nijs said. They’d cost somewhere around $400 if they did get made.

Coincidentally enough, the Discovery article also mentioned something I just heard about yesterday. Hoodies that come equipped with earbuds disguised as their drawstrings. They’re called HoodieBuddie and my friend just called me on a pair (sweatshirt?) the other day. The headphone jack sits in the front pocket so now you’ll REALLY look like you’re a crazy person walking down the street. Though I do think it’s a neat invention.

Discovery writes, “The Hoodiebuddie lineup includes limited editions by California street artists, such as Skinner, Hannah Stouffer and Cat Cult. The hoodies are machine washable in cold water and come in a variety of colors and sizes for men and women. Also available are flannel hoodies and earbud equipped T-shirts without a hood.”

And there’s one that looks like this…

(via Deccan Chronicle)


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Jill Pantozzi
Jill Pantozzi is a pop-culture journalist and host who writes about all things nerdy and beyond! She’s Editor in Chief of the geek girl culture site The Mary Sue (Abrams Media Network), and hosts her own blog “Has Boobs, Reads Comics” (TheNerdyBird.com). She co-hosts the Crazy Sexy Geeks podcast along with superhero historian Alan Kistler, contributed to a book of essays titled “Chicks Read Comics,” (Mad Norwegian Press) and had her first comic book story in the IDW anthology, “Womanthology.” In 2012, she was featured on National Geographic’s "Comic Store Heroes," a documentary on the lives of comic book fans and the following year she was one of many Batman fans profiled in the documentary, "Legends of the Knight."