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Keep an eye out for Gunther and his Happy Smugglers; they’re launching this summer. What’s a Happy Smuggler, I hear you cry? It’s an ingenious new line of underwear that has a handy pocket at the front to keep all your little secrets in.
The festival pants were born out of Lowlands festival by a group of friends. The tongue-in-cheek idea has evolved into a bona fide success story. Through crowd funding they’ve reached their €20.000,- target on Kickstarter, have navigated several rounds of prototypes and trials and now the official launch of the Smuggler is happening. Along the way the boys have gained knowledge of all things underwear related; fabrics, elastics and factories – they’ve found themselves an honest factory in Tunisia who’ll supply us with 2000 Happy Smugglers.
I sat down with two of the guys, Henk-Jan and Eric, over lunch to find out more.
We came up with the idea a couple of years ago at Lowlands. The following year our friends tested a prototype, we got feedback and went from there.
The infamous strip search at Lowlands
Besides their ethos of ‘the fewer the pockets, the better the party outfit’, there’s all sorts of things one could to smuggle to festivals, with it’s handy pocket the world’s your oyster: phones, lip balm, condoms (if you’re feeling lucky). For inspiration, check out their short film here. The design challenge, they said, was to create an undetectable pocket; both for comfort and to ensure you’re secret stash stay secret – even if you get chosen for that notorious strip search.
Lady Smugglers?
Whilst the black boxers with the yellow smile are iconic, I inquired into whether us females could get a look in too: “Definitely. Yes. First, a hidden pocket T-shirt… or a Smuggle Swim!” Undoubtedly swim wear poses tricky waterproofing challenges, but exciting possibilities for smuggling. On a recent test run they managed to keep their confetti dry for brilliant impromptu confetti throwing at a pool party.
Where can we buy a pair?
The guys have big plans for the smugglers to get across international waters, but first, “We’ll start with Amsterdam, then… who knows! We communicate in English to see where it can spread out to”. You’ll be able to find them first July 18 at Strandverblijf. A beach fest seems a perfect place to test a pair. Alternatively, check out their website or Facebook page for further details.
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