No Slippage!

Earlier this month I lost the first gadget of my life. A brand new iPod Touch. Fracking thing slipped out of my pocket in a cab and was gone before I even realized it. After mourning for weeks I knew I needed a better plan for the replacement. I tried to do the honest thing and went to the Apple Store looking for some kind of rubberized thingy what would attach to the iPod and keep it from being so dang slippery but no luck. They have approximately 10 million of those things for iPhones, but not a single one for the Touch. And since they are just slightly different sizes… well forget it. So, what to do. I started thinking about about things I’ve owned in the past that I didn’t lose, and which ones of those were definitely not slippery. The answer was immediately obvious. A skateboard.

I went down to the closest skate shop I know of, which is unfortunately smack dab in a mall, and bought a yard of black grip tape. I point out that I bought the black stuff, not the multicolored or diecut stuff because when I pointed at it in the shop, and said “the black stuff, right there next to the Animal Chin DVD” the kid at the counter said “What DVD?” and I said “Animal Chin” and he said “who?” and I said “Fucking Animal Chin for fucks sakes you work at a skate shop and you don’t know who the hell Animal Chin is what the fuck is this world coming to?” Actually I didn’t say that last bit, I said “the Powell DVD with the asian guy on it, to the left of that” and the kid said “oh.”

So I bought it and took it home to see if this plan is crazy enough to work.

First thing I did was cut out a piece that was about the same size as the iPod Touch. I got three feet of grip tape so I was really hoping I had enough for the job.

That was close. Then I trimmed it down even more.

And with that, I went for it.

In the hour since I did this the iPod hasn’t slipped at all. Actually it hasn’t moved at all. It’s been sitting on my bed without being touched, so perhaps that isn’t the best road test. It definitely doesn’t feel like it’s going to slip, though it might wear a hole in my pocket or sand off my finger prints. It’s not slipping out of my pocket at least. So as far as I’m concerned, mission completed.

Quick Update: It’s been about a week and this keeps getting linked to so I thought I’d update folks on the antislippageness of this mod. So far it works awesome. And it’s not causing nearly the pocket or finger wear I was expecting. Turns out, and I never would have guessed, but a skateboard is way heavier than an iPod which makes it easier to scratch you when you pick it up. The iPod barely resists at all so there’s never any “scratching” going on. So far I’m pretty happy with this.

Another Update:  To everyone telling me about other options which I should have tried instead, where the hell were you jerks 2 weeks ago BEFORE I made this blog post showing what I’d already done. Your scary insightful insight would have been very helpful then. Now, not so much. Jerks.

Final Update: Almost a year later I’m retiring the iPod from daily use in favor of the iPhone I just bought. I’m happy to say that no holes were worn in any pockets, and in fact no noticeable damage to pockets at all. This worked out amazingly awesome and if I had tons of cash and resources I would have definitely made these and sold them all around the world and become a billionare off this idea.