【2008 Archives】

With the holidays just around the corner008 Archives nothing says merry and bright more than an ugly Christmas sweater.

But if you're trapped inside a warm room with a swarm of touchy-feely family members trying to give you a tight embrace, you might want to trade your overly decorated Rudolph get-up for a sweater that'll turn your sweat into the talk of the holiday party.

Lucky, an odd new business has arrived to help that happen.

Eric Drommerhausen and Kevin Knutson of LGHTR (lghtr.co), Garrick Willhite of Object (object.design) and Scott Dahl of Periscope have presented to the world the first-ever Christmas product inspired by people who may perspire a bit more than others.

Introducing 'The Ugly Sweater Sweater.'

"We all used to work together at Periscope and Scott had this idea of an ugly person wearing a sweat-stained sweatshirt - the ultimate ugly sweater," Kevin Knutson told Mashable. "Garrick and Eric thought it would be funny if the sweat actually made up holiday-themed shapes and we could sell them for ugly sweater parties. So, we made some prototypes and people thought they were extremely stupid, but funny."

According to Knutson, the intended audience for the Ugly Sweater Sweaters is for anyone with a unique sense of humor that really wants to stand out at the next Ugly Sweater Party they attend.

In order to test the sweater's mechanics, the men baked, exercised, and slept in them to make sure the product was as comfortable as possible in any situation.

The sweater's iconic holiday design, however, was tested a bit differently.

"We wanted to use real sweat and pay people to sweat in them, but found the process extremely disgusting and the shapes were mostly sweat blobs of gross," said Knutson. "So, we decided to use a printer that has a unique way of transferring the shapes on to the garments. Printing the shirts results in a much better smelling product as well."

According to Knutson, the holiday sweaters are only sold online but hope to one day see their garments in retails stores such as Neiman Marcus and Barney's.

They are even in the works of adding new items to the sweaty clothing line.

"We're testing some sweaty sweatpants right now and the results are truly horrific. But in a good way?"

We'll just have to wait and see what exactly he means by that...