Did the Snuggie Imitate the Slanket?

With four million sold since October, the Snuggie, a blanket with sleeves, has become one of the hottest products in the country.  Many are familiar with the infomercial, as well as hundreds of parodies on YouTube.  In fact, Jay Leno recently mocked the snuggie by saying “Why don’t you just put your robe on backwards?”  Similarly, Ellen DeGeneres quipped “They should throw in a pointed hat so you can look like a wizard.”  Yet, regardless of your feelings toward the Snuggie, it turns out that the Snuggie is actually an imitator of “The Slanket.”

As reported by the New York Times, the Slanket predates the Snuggie by more than two years.  Gary Clegg claims that he invented the idea in 1998 at the University of Maine.  While living in a chilly dorm room, he cut a hole in his sleeping bag because his TV remote wouldn’t work through the fabric, and asked his mother to sew on sleeves.  After several adjustments, he started giving the blankets to friends and family, and finally started selling them in 2006.

Yet, in October, a two-minute infomercial started to appear that promoted the Snuggie.  It showed Snuggie wearers reading, knitting, eating popcorn, and even cheering in the stands at a football game.  The success of this product showed that it is not necessarily the first one to market that wins, but rather the one with the most aggressive marketing plan.

Although Clegg says that the Snuggie “undermines the integrity of the Slanket”, he said he would not pursue legal action against the Snuggie.  Supposedly, when Clegg approached patent lawyers while developing the Slanket, he was told a design patent for the Slanket would not be feasible.  The reason?  Since the shapeless garments with sleeves are not made from innovative materials, nor do they have complicated moving parts, there is little that is proprietary about them from a design standpoint.

At the same time, however, Clegg claims that the popularity of the Snuggie has also helped the sales of the Slanket.  He projected that the Slanket’s revenue of $4.2 million in 2008 will increase to roughly $9 million in 2009.  As Mr. Clegg said, “Their infomercial is raising general awareness about the product.”

Yet, one must wonder why it took so long for a human to develop a blanket with sleeves.