Photo by Anton Olsen
The monkeys over at ThinkGeek have conjured up yet another awesome t-shirt idea. Combining two of my favorite things, robots, and bottle openers, I present to you the BeerBot Bottle Opening Shirt. Never again will the fashionable geek be without a means to access their libation of choice.
Through a particularly nefarious contact and a covertly trained monkey, I was able to obtain, free of charge, a sample of this shirt for analysis and possible interrogation. The robot wasn’t intelligent so we had to skip the Q&A. For the initial test I wore the shirt to work. Since my wardrobe is about 90% robot shirts, I wasn’t surprised that few people noticed the new robot. But I was surprised that few people saw the bottle opener. After inspecting my shirt in the mirror I realized that it blends in well, and unless you catch it in profile it doesn’t really stand out.
Marketing picture from ThinkGeek.com
I refrained from performing the functional test until Beer:30, at which time a few of us gathered around the beer cooler to pop open some Shiner. Since I’m used to using a church key or a bar mounted opener it felt a tad awkward opening one on my chest. I ended up holding the opener in one hand to get some leverage on the bottle. Others who used it did not express as much awkwardness, but some spillage did occur. I think if the opener were designed so you push the bottle down instead of lift that could be avoided, but I don’t know how well it’d work sewn into the shirt like that.
So as far as a robot shirt goes, it’s very cool, and comfortable. The opener is made of aluminum and doesn’t weigh down the shirt anymore than a heavy silk screen does. While the opener functions, I felt it was a bit awkward and could have room for improvement. Everyone thought it was cool, despite the difficulties using the opener.
You can pick up your own BeerBot Bottle Opening Shirt at ThinkGeek. Don’t forget to get a 4-pack of Caffeinated Pirate Root Beer for the Geeklets. Just be sure to cut them off long before bed time.
