Slap Bracelets of the Future!
 

Want!

Want. NOW!

Hmmm...I guess I am just slightly too old for this. Until this post I had never heard of a slap bracelet and don't think I've ever been aware of seeing one.

Can't access gawker sites from work so I'll have to wait until later if I want one now. But if it is epaper as the URL suggest, I wonder if it could be made to look like a watch of my perfect design (somewhere around here is a thread where I lay out in excruciating detail what I want in a watch).

Ummm... What's a slap bracelet?

I imagine it could, though the example image shown has a simple digital clock display. Oh, and it doesn't actually exist, it's a concept from a design agency, not yet a product.

And you're not that much older than me, I'm surprised you missed slap bracelets.

Essentially, it's a short length of the stuff they use for tape measure s wrapped in fabric (as a matter of fact, it wasn't uncommon to tear the fabric and discover that your slap bracelet was indeed made with an old tape measure). You know how a tape measure will stay straight until you put a bit of pressure on it, and it'll curl up? That's the theory behind the snap bracelet. Hold it straight, "slap" it onto your wrist, it wraps right around.

I still have an old slap bracelet.

The wikipedia page says they were early 1990s. I was in college by 1992 and certainly nobody in my college crowd were wearing them.

This old Boston Globe article suggests they were a crazy by 1990 but they're quoting a 9-year-old so maybe it was a bit too young for us in high school (but I don't remember my younger sisters having them either). Another site says it caught on with the rave scene which I wasn't a part of at all.

Early 90s? Hardly. Mid 80s, maybe late 80s. I remember them from elementary school, which would put you in Jr. High, early high school at the oldest.

But perhaps SoCal lead the way on that one.