ROCKET NEWS

 

Samurai-style Snuggie seeks to help travelers fly in comfort.
Sleeved blankets, like the infamous Snuggie, are an odd mixed bag of pros and cons. On the pro side, staying warm when the temperature drops and being able to use your hands are two things that are pretty universally liked. At the same time, there’s no getting around the fact that wearing a sleeved blanket will make you look disheveled, if not outright shiftless.

But the designers of the Kimonoket are looking to address the sleeved blanket’s image problem with their new garment that’s half kimono, half blanket. By slipping your arms through the sleeves and laying the
Kimonoket atop your body, you can lounge or doze in both physical and mental comfort, thanks to the soft fabric and fashionable patterns adapted from those of the esteemed Meisen-style kimono that originally captivated fashionable Tokyoites in the Taisho Period of the early 1900s.

 

While regular kimono are usually made of cotton or silk, the Kimonoket is sewn from terrycloth produced in Ehime Prefecture’s Imabari City, Japan’s leading towel producer. The result promises to be soft, warm, and lightweight. That last point is particularly important, since the
Kimonoket’s designers are touting it as a great thing for travelers to take with them on long airplane flights so that they can stay cozy while reading, using a laptop, or doing anything else that they couldn’t with the standard rectangular blankets airlines provide.

 

In addition, the designers say that the Kimonoket makes for great roomwear when relaxing at home, or can be a great way to keep the sun off your shoulders and upper body during a day at the beach or wandering about a seaside resort.

Two patterns are planned, one with a colorful dahlia pattern (shown on the left in the below image) and the more subdued hawk feather Kimonoket, the latter of which is being billed as a unisex garment.

 

The Kimonoket is not currently available in stores, and is instead part of an ongoing campaign on Wonder Fly, a crowdfunding website operated by Japanese airline ANA. Tiers with rewards including a Kimonoket start at 16,000 yen (US$140), while packages with two begin at 29,800 yen.

The crowdfunding page can be found here, and with almost 90 percent of its 800,000-yen goal already secured with 27 days to go in the campaign, it might not be long until you start seeing air travelers slipping on their Kimonokets as they fly around the globe.