Back to School DON’Ts

1. Capacitor Barrette on Etsy
Eek! Ok, it’s definitely cool to wear capacitors as a decorative element, but only if they actually are decorative–not hideous like this poor excuse for embellishment.

2. Totoro Plush Hat
Unless you are under the age of 18 months you have no business pretending to a giant furry anime critter. Sorry “Furrys,” Sorry.

3. Fuze Necklace
The only things you’re going to attract wearing tacky light-up jewelry are clueless teenage candy ravers stuck in the mid-nineties and that’s going to be awkward, or the unwanted attentions of a lightning bug which could be awkward too.

4. GEEK Silicone Bracelet
Wearing a bracelet that literally says GEEK tells the world you’re trying too hard. And no one has ever looked good in silicone.

5. T-Qualizer Light Up Equalizer T-Shirt
This t-shirt has an electroluminescent panel on the front that reacts to music. Yet, the only thing that should be reacting to the music is yourself when you’re dancing, and besides, your obnoxious flashing chest isn’t going to make you friends any time soon.

6. Utilikilt
The idea behind this pathetic invention is that by freeing a man from his jeans and letting his anatomy sway around when he moves, and then giving him tons of pockets for his gadgets and gear he will achieve some sort of anti-establishment masculine nirvana. Instead, they only man’s jeans that will be removed are the DNA variety, as in from the genetic pool. Definitely a lady killer in the wrong sense.

7. Yoda Backpack
Alright, you’re a Star Wars fan, and these days that’s perfectly acceptable. Having delusions that you’re a character from a movie and running around in public with a plushie strapped to your back is not.

8. Crocs
Supposed comfort is never a viable reason for allowing your feet to be seen in public encased in perforated boat-shaped rubber monstrosities as these.

Back to School DOs

1. Teal Triple Capacitor Necklace
Here’s a better way to wear capacitors–three teal ones are strung delicately from a chain and look more like jewels than capacitors.

2. Caffiene Earrings
Let your nerdy nature shine from your head by dangling silver caffeine molecules from your ears in earring form. They’re scientific and terrific, not to mention classy.

3. Fan Guard Chain Necklace
This necklace doesn’t need to blink in an attempt to announce your geekiness to the world. Anyone who’s plugged in cables or PCI cards to the back of a desktop PC will recognize the modified fan guard around your neck and give you the silent nod of approval.

4. Cat5 Bracelet
You don’t need a bracelet that literally says GEEK, you need one that says geek to anyone who knows what ethernet cable is.

5. MIDI Cuff 1.5″
This cool black cuff made of MIDI cable is a subtle way to profess your love of electronic music.

6. High Voltage Laptop Bag
Instead of cramming everything into pockets, grab this laptop bag with a high voltage strap as a stylish solution.

7. Circuit Board Memo Pad
Keep your notes safe with a notepad with covers made from real circuitboard.

Transistor Cufflinks - $45
*NEW* Normal cufflinks in standard materials will make your geeky boy go “meh.” Cufflinks made out of the stuff of circuits will make him go “woot!” These silver-toned cufflinks are made from real transistors–components that are used to amplify current or act as a switch.


Goa Wave Binary Watch - Blue LEDs - $129
Your nerdy guy likes to be on time, but he probably would rather glance at a futuristic watch face than ordinary, analog watch hands. The Goa Wave Binary Watch is exactly the right combination of stylish form with geeky function. To read the watch you have to add up the numbers in the first row to get the hours and the ones in the second row to get the minutes.


MIDI Cuff 1.5″ - $45
At first glance this black cuff looks like some kind of funky rockstar-ish accessory, but a closer examination of the surface shows it to be created from MIDI Cable — Musical Instrument Digital Interface cable that’s used in electronic music creation. Whether your boy likes / makes electronic music, or just appreciates unconventional material, he’ll love owning a MIDI Cuff or two. Most guys will need the “Large” size option.


Fuse Necklace - $25
Here’s some geeky guy jewelry that looks good as well as being pretty nerdy. The rubber, electronic wire-type material has two real wire terminals at each end and a real glass fuse as a pendant. Hot.


Silver Wallet - $38
Here’s a cool gadget that will help your boy consolidate his pockets filled with loose credit cards, receipts, and cash. This aluminum-toned wallet will allow him to organize select up to six credit, ID and membership cards quickly and easily at the push of a switch.

If you’re the type of person who needs constant reassurance of the circumference of your wrist, or if you want to flaunt your geometric prowess or love of quantifiable length, then this is the perfect bracelet for you. This 1/2-inch wide stainless steel bracelet is available in either Imperial (shown) or metric (which would also be 13mm wide) versions. Since conversions between Imperial units are so difficult to do without computation aids, the Imperial version has the added benefit of being a conversion tool. Cool!

Here’s more silver earrings by Individual Icons that feature different sorts of screw head versions, including two type of flathead ones: rounded and flat, and the ubiquitous Phillips head. Anyone who’s proud they’ve got the crafty / DIY bug will surely understand why these little feats of engineering make lovely jewelry.

Peter Kirn from Create Digital Music pointed to an article reviewing their Make> / CDM / Etsy night in Brooklyn and remarked that the author’s coinage of the term “nerdster” was one he could get behind.

Last night, on the not-so-anonymous urging of a PR company that represents Make magazine, I went to “Handmade Music” at Etsy Labs in downtown Brooklyn…

On handmade music night, super-nerds, artists, and the edgy, in-the-know, 20-something crowd converge on the Etsy labs, drawn by promises of newly-invented instruments, techno music, and free pizza…

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Pink Nerds are Cool T-Shirt
The absolutely essential first step in proclaiming your nerdy allegiance is to rock a t-shirt that shows the world what you think is worthwhile proclaiming to the world. This pink faux-vintage tee features a distressed graphic featuring Nerds—as in the cartoon versions of the Wonka-created candy—romping around an exuberant statement of the cultural significance of technologically sophisticated individuals. Check it out. $20.

Estrogen Necklace
Nothing says “girl” and “nerd” quite as beautifully and literally as this sterling silver necklace featuring the estrogen molecule. And, not only is estrogen essential in making a girl into a woman, it also influences bone density, body temperature, cholesterol levels, and skin and hair health. Who knew girlie stuff could be so useful (and totally nerdy at the same time)? $40.

Smiley Necklaces - Sterling Silver
As anyone who works with computers and language (including computer languages), text and western punctuation are great for conveying logical instructions and data, but expressing emotions require a more artistic approach. However, we’re lucky to have a system to communicate emotion with common ASCII punctuation–Smileys. Why not express yourself in a totally geeky way with one of the many options in the silver Smiley Necklaces. $65.00.

Credit Card Organizers - Pink - 6 Card & 12 Card
This neat gadget holds 6 credt cards that correspond to each of the switches on the top. If you want to grab your Visa, just push the VISA switch and that card gets nudged out just enough so you can grab it. When you’re done, just put it back in the slot and you’re ready to go. No more leafing through your wallet at the store while the crowd behind you in line gets angry! $39.50

Diskette Handbag
And here’s a cool way to tote around your new pink credit card organizer, along with your essential gadgets, make up, keys, and the like. This black pvc handbag features six real floppy disks on each side, and the inside has pockets to carry around the essentials, and enough interior space to stash those less essential things. Totally geek chic. $55

Floppy Disk Earrings
There’s no way to undermine how nerdily-cool floppy disks are. Entire operating systems and programs used to be distributed on floppy disks, but as time and technology progressed, floppies were superseded by CD-ROMs, then USB and high speed internet connections as a way to distribute data and programs. However, when cast in silver, they make very cool earrings. $40.00

Customizable Dot Matrix Wrist Cuff - Pink
Hacking and DIY go hand-in-hand. Just check out MAKE Magazine and all the cool projects they have for modifying everyday objects into increasingly useful things. So why shouldn’t your fashion accessories represent your DIY spirit in a way that wouldn’t warrant a visit from the fashion police? Grab yourself a blank Dot Matrix Wrist Cuff and punch out the dots to spell a word, acronym, or expression in pixelated form by punching out dots on a 5 x 30 grid to form words or patterns. Here at Fractalspin we’ve provided templates so you can easily express your geekativity with patterns like “WTF,” “MYSQL,” “APACHE,” “</ARM>,” “LINUX,” and more. Check out either of these templates we’ve made to help you out [1] and [2], choose your favorite, punch away and out your closeted nerd self. $30.

Remember when Barbie was a troublemaker? She got herself and Mattel into hot water when the talking version of her vinyl embodiment quipped “Math class is tough.” Suddenly education activists and women’s rights watchdogs were up in arms at Mattel’s complicity in the fact that more boys than girls take advanced math and science classes, and boys outnumber girls studying computer science by a factor of 3 to 1 (but the Barbie Liberation Organization had quite a bit of fun with it).

Is is because math and science are boring and useless? Hardly! Who designed the iPhone? A bunch of very hip nerds at Mac. How did you get to this website to stare at this post? The hard work of many dedicated nerds who made computers possible and then figured out how to hook them up to each other. You’ve got to admit it: Nerds are cool. So grab yourself a cool, nerdy t-shirt that proclaims the truth and wear it proudly!

PS: Nerds are also delicious.

Sure it may be inexpensive and “engrave-able” with a label printer, but wow, you’ve got to get something else besides that gigantic black binder clip you borrowed from your office to store your money in. It’s not only bad for the magnetic stripes on your card, it makes you look…well, cheap. And that you value a quick solution instead of a smart one. Why not check out our cash-organizers instead? They’re geeky, innovative, and stylish. Just like you, right?

The simplest, most elegantly nerdy solution for you if you primarily carry cash and one or two credit cards is the Circuit Board Money Clip ($10). Choose your circuitboard color–red, green, or blue–and then clip together your loose bills and receipts. Easy.

So you’ve got a few more credit cards but still like the concept of a money clip. The Duct Tape Money Clip will be absolutely perfect for you. Everyone knows how useful duct tape is for securing cables to the floor, holding broken CRT monitor cases together and repairing holey laptop bags, but as it turns out it also makes awesome wallets. There’s 2 credit card slots and 1 clear ID window along with the money clip part so you can stash the essentials in style.

So you need a better solution than just a hopped-up money clip, but you still want to show off your nerd cred, and you don’t want anything that’s too bulky. Check out these Tyvek Dot Matrix Wallets that come in Trifold ($23) and Bifold ($18) forms. It looks like you’ve got a wallet made from retro pin-fed accounting paper that people used to use to print out reports or ASCII art, but it’s made of super strong yet thin and waterproof Tyvek–a paper-like material made from plastics (the same thing that USPS Priority Mail envelopes are made from). The printed numbers are the first 3,000 digits of pi, which not only made a nice decoration, it also makes your wallet into a swank reference tool.

You’re a gadget freak and wish you could apply cool technology to managing your cash and credit cards every day. You’ve got to check out this Credit Card Organizer ($39.50)–just push the corresponding switch and the card you want is nudged out of its slot for you to grab and use with ease. They’re totally lightweight with a low profile and have a cash clip on the reverse to store more stuff. You can even switch out the icons assigned to each slot with others or just use colors. And you’ll never go back to a standard wallet again!

OK, so you’re a gadget freak and a card freak. The option for you is the larger version of the aforementioned gadget: the 12-Card Credit Card Organizer ($58). The same six switches control 2 cards now, doubling your payment / loyalty-generating power. It’s perfect if you use a bag or a purse and don’t need to stuff it down your pants–er, pockets–every day.

While a gadget that pops out cards by the push of a switch is definitely cool, you’re more of a traditionalist, but with still a ton of credit cards and cash.Your best best would be to go with the Duct Tape Hybrid Credit Card Wallet ($15). There’s slots for nine credit cards and a clear window for your ID, as well as a regular money fold and a slot for coins. It’s the ultimate, nerdiest solution for physical money exchange management and it won’t set you back too much at a mere fifteen bucks.

If you’re almost sold, there are more options between the ones we’ve picked. Check out all the wallets we have here and you’ll surely be on your way to being a more organized, money-at-the-ready geek.

We’re packing tons of our gear in boxes, slapping labels on NEW stuff that just came in (and isn’t even on the site yet!), and heading over to Union Station on Wednesday for Gen Art’s ShopCHICago. Want to check out the awesome new stuff we’re adding, in person? And browse through a ton of cool boutiques and designers, too?

From Gen Art: A one-of-a-kind retail opportunity bringing together 60+ of Chicago’s best emerging designers and boutiques. All under one roof! Dont miss this opportunity to buy clothing and accessories directly from the brightest designer talent Chicago has to offer.

And theres an open bar. Woo! (but you’ve gotta be 21+ in years)

Bid on a new resistor necklace from Zelle’s 1337 line, the Green Resistor Triplets Necklace

LINKS:
ShopCHICago
Gen Art
Fashion Focus Chicago: 2006

We just added an entire spectrum of photovoltaic backpacks & messenger bags by Voltaic systems.
I’m thinking these would be *perfect* at something like Burning Man, Coachella, M3, Fuse-IN / Movement / DEMF, the Muteks, or any other outdoor festival where you need to keep your gadgets charged and there’s not an AC outlet in sight. And (at Burning Man, specifically), you could make all sorts of new friends with your excellent charging-powers as long as the sun’s out.