Beer-Proof Lederhosen on Sale at Oktoberfest
It may just be the perfect garment for a beer-soaked visit to the Munich Oktoberfest starting this Saturday — lederhosen-style swimming shorts. The invention by Austrian restaurant owner Peter Kolb has taken Austria by storm in recent months and we, having been to the Oktoberfest a couple of times already, think this might be the most promising invention we have seen this year.
In the packed tents, where dirndl-clad waitress heave liter-glasses of the amber nectar between the crowded wooden tables, beer spillage becomes more likely with every passing hour. Flying pork knuckles can also be a problem as the atmosphere gets more rowdy. Not the right environment for proper Lederhosen an cost up to €700, one might argue.
Alpine traditionalists who last year complained about the growing trend towards cheap lederhosenimported from Asia may cry heresy at the sight of Kolb’s lederhosen. After all, they’re manufactured in China and don’t contain a scrap of leather.
Kolb, who runs two restaurants in Austria, says he has received orders from all around the world for his trunks, which can also be used as leisure shorts. Countless emails have flooded in to his company, PK Traditional, with photos of people wearing them on beaches as far away from the Alps as Florida, Australia and Japan.
Since he launched the product four months ago, he says he has only been able to satisfy 10 percent of demand, and has sold more than 20,000 via sports shops in Austria and his company’s Web site.
Major retail chains are lining up to stock them and Kolb says the demand has got so out of hand that he decided to shut down production at the Chinese factory at the end of August and reorganize the business from top to bottom so that he can produce and distribute the design in sufficient quantities in time for 2010 spring/summer season.
A woman’s version, the “dirndl bikini,” has already sold out completely and the company is fast running out of lederhosen in the most common sizes, he says.
From: Spiegel
17/09/2009 by Thomas
Related articles: