by
From The Verge
For a mere $189 you can take your drone from maybe a little chilly to definitely toasty-warm. Wouldn’t you like to do that for your drone?
If you would, San Francisco-based artist Danielle Baskin will help you. She makes this (the sweaters for drones) and many other things, such as tapestries of Pluto, tricycle-based pop-up shops, cloud storage systems that are actually physical objects, customized avocados, and signs.
When reached for comment Baskin told The Verge, “It started as a joke / art piece, but actually drone-owners in cold climates have told me that their drones have problems with their battery life during the winter. I was thinking that I should add pockets to the sweaters that can hold portable heaters or make the sweater electric so it keeps the drone at a warmer temperature, and actually this would be useful, if not just for novelty.” She also pointed out that some people are afraid of drones and a sweater might make a drone look less “cold” to them in the other sense of the word.
Here’s what the sweater looks like when it’s not on a drone:
As you can see, without a drone this sweater is just a nonsense object. I would glance at that and say something along the lines of “oh a pile of yarn?”
Here is the drone sweater with a drone in it:
Yes, nice.
Helpfully, Baskin includes advice on how to pick out clothes for your drone. Her first piece of advice is regarding fabric choice:
“While wool is very warm and one of the best insulating materials, take into account how often it will need to be washed, and whether it will make your drone more uncomfortable due to itching. A good blend of washable wool and cotton or acrylic may be the best bet.”
Wow, hadn’t thought of it, but this is solid advice. I know the warming properties of wool really aren’t worth it to me, when you weigh that against the itchiness and the smell when it gets damp. The same I suppose would be true for my drone.
The second piece of advice involves measuring:
Second, just as you would measure your own neck, chest and waist before buying a piece of clothing, measuring your drone is the best way of assuring the best fit.
Yup!
The third piece of advice is about pants.
It almost goes without saying, but we will mention it anyway, drones cannot, or should not, wear pants — only sweaters and jackets.
This makes a lot of sense. I wouldn’t want to spend my hard-earned dollars on pants for my drone just to watch them dangle in the sky, serving no purpose. Although if I took my jeans out of the dryer and they weren’t quite dry yet maybe I would put them on a drone and fly them around to air them out? You know, if I had time to spare but not another quarter for the dryer. Or in another situation I would put pants on my drone and hold up different shirts above it so I could see how various outfit combinations would look before I put them on my body. That would be a fun way to shake up my morning routine!
Anyway, drones don’t have legs, or nervous systems, but they might want a sweater.