Blog : The Pokie

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3/27/2015 5:23 pm

The Pokie

As My uncle used to say, "You can't make this stuff up!"

(courtesy, International Business Times)

The Snuggie was perhaps the most asexual garment ever conceived. Now enter the Pokie, which hopes to bring new life and more fun and kinkiness to the blanket with sleeves.

Unlike the original Snuggie or the Slanket, the Pokie is equipped with removable "intimacy holes" and is tailored with a defined shoulder area and buttons in the back. The female version features removable pieces at the bra area and the bikini line. The male version has an opening at the chest (kind of like a Superman emblem) and a hole at the bottom, like a pair of boxers.

No, this is not a joke. In fact, the product is already made. The creators behind it are two sisters: Maddi and Stevi Gould, from Charlotte, North Carolina. Maddi, 28, is a recent graduate of the Charlotte School of Law who said she recently completed the bar exam. Stevi, 22, will be graduating from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with a degree in psychology in May.

Over the last two years, the sisters have worked on the Pokie as a side project. The inspiration behind it all: Maddi’s boyfriend. While she said she suffers from feeling too cold in the bedroom, he would always be hot. Maddi described that one time her boyfriend jokingly put on a Snuggie and they ended up taking a pair of scissors to it. But why not go beyond destruction to all the Snuggies of the world and create a brand new product.

The sisters took the idea to a North Carolina-based project management firm Enventys, which helped them trademark the name and enlist a manufacturer in Hong Kong. They couldn’t, however, secure a design patent since there already is a “blanket with sleeves.”

The pair has so much faith in the product and its appeal that they’ve already invested about $100,000 of family funds into it. They received 3,000 Pokies (1,500 of each gender) in November and have since been storing them in a warehouse. Now, with Maddi done studying for the bar exam and Stevi back from studying abroad, it's time for them to release their invention to market.

Inspired by their filmmaker brother who used the crowdfunding site Kickstarter to raise money for film projects, the team launched their Kickstarter page to raise awareness and secure customers. So far, they only have two backers and $56. They’ve set a minimum of $5,000 to raise by April 26, but Maddi said they hope to at least make enough to pay back the $100,000 investment -- like any good entrepreneur should -- and order even more Pokies for retail.

Launching a blanket-based product in the spring seems like odd timing, but Maddi Gould explained that they are targetting gifts for the upcoming wedding season. “We want to help people be more comfortable with having a conversation about safe-sex and a strong self-esteem,” she said.

And in case you can’t come up with your own ways to use the Pokie, the website will also host a fun series of graphics on fun and sensual ways to use the product, similar to the Snuggie Sutra.


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