A new school year means back to school shopping- yes, even if you're in college.  So what did my mom get for me in a last ditch effort to make me appreciate her before I left for college?  A new sweatshirt.  But not just any sweatshirt, a sweatshirt with headphones built in.

It's called a "Hoodie Buddie" (trademark some fourth grader), and I'm not sure what to think about it.

When I first saw it, I was like "my god, what kind of wizardry is this, this is amazing."  I knew that I would finally be able to listen to music in class without anybody noticing cords everywhere.  I could pass time in even the longest of classes even if I wasn't tired enough to go to sleep.

Trying it on, it hit me.  This product is absolutely ridiculous.  I mean honestly, you just look silly with those pull strings dangling from your ears.  Then again, I do now live in a town where twice-cutoff jean shorts are acceptable and a sweatshirt works perfectly fine in place of a bra.

These do actually work good, if you leave off the 'good' part.  The earbuds are those kind that shove down deep into your ear, probably past the safe zone recommended on the box of Q-Tips.  I don't know, maybe it helps in delivering music straight to your brain.  Not that it helps the sound quality at all, they're somewhere in between the 99 cent headphones from Walmart and the "they must be better because they're from Best Buy" 10 dollar ones.  It kind of sounds like I'm underwater.  Either that or they caused my ear drum to burst and let water into my skull.

I kind of like the fact that the cords are all tucked away.  I tend to tangle the fuck out of every single pair of headphones I've ever owned, and have even ripped of the speaker end off a few.  Not that I haven't destroyed the pull cords on a sweatshirt either.  If one of those bastards happens to get caught on something, you'll end up looking like Kenny for days until the strings stretch themselves back out.

Yes, you have to have the hood on to make the strings reach your ears without falling out.

My final thoughts: I know I'm going to eventually wash my Ipod because of this (assuming I actually use it to listen to music.)  I'll probably using this for snowboarding or something, so when I fall over I won't have to untangle everything, including my legs.