Not always useful, but not altogether useless

99% Invisible, Mini Stories Vol 5 just reminded me of Chindogu: Irreverent objects that are designed to be all but useless, while also humerus and perhaps a little thought provoking. Like these classics:

Photograph of a baby wearing a onesie that has mops sewn onto the elbows and knees
Photograph of a person wearing a suit holding an umbrella that appears to have blown inside out. The bottom of the umbrella handle has a tube attached, leading into a shoulder bag container full of water. The suggestion seems to be that the umbrella would capture rainwater and store it in the container
A photo of a pair of black high heeled shoes with little wheels attached suggesting that the wearer could roll along on the heels

In turn, this reminded me of the RuckJack, which is a jacket, that turns into a bag. Or a bag, that turns into a jacket.

A looping animated GIF of someone removing their orange jacket and then slowly folding it into a rucksack shape and putting this rucksack on their back

Give it a moment. Think for a while about the RuckJack and try to imagine scenarios where it would be useful.

.

.

.

How did you get on? Personally I’m still at a loss for any real world scenario where having a RuckJack would be useful, beyond a Chindogu level of usefulness.

Bonus fact from the 99PI story: The selfie stick was invented in the 90s as a Chindogu.