Home security company SimpliSafe has unveiled a holiday sweater prototype that promotes social distancing by using alarms and flashing lights.
As the holiday season approaches and coronavirus cases continue to spike across the US, more people have started considering whether it's safe or not to meet up with loved ones. To tackle this problem, SimpliSafe designed the Social Distancing Sweater, which is rigged with motion sensors that set off the knitwear's siren and flashing LED lights when someone steps within six feet of the sweater wearer.
"As the experts on protection, albeit home protection, we wanted to give people a playful way to protect themselves during this year's holiday celebrations," SimpliSafe creative director Wade Devers said in a news statement announcing the sweater. "It's really meant to bring some lightheartedness to a time that's otherwise proven very stressful."
Inadvertently, Simplisafe is also highlighting how unevenly the pain of the pandemic is spread through the retail industry.
"Ugly" sweaters have become something of an annual tradition, and they've grown into a multi-million dollar cottage industry. They're not worn for fashion, but to parties purposefully thrown to show off garish threads around the holidays
No parties to go to this year likely means fewer ugly sweater sales too. At the same time, sales for holiday decorations have gone way up, selling out at many stores, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.