In the age of Kickstarter, anyone with an idea can possibly raise some money to make a product.
Consider Hidrate, an electronic water bottle that connects to an app to track how much you drink.
Dubbed by Gawker as “the Worst Kickstarter,” Hidrate has already raised $85,000, despite the fact that anyone with eyes can buy a clear Nalgene and look at how high they fill it up to track the amount of water they drink in a day.
And no, this doesn’t appear to be an intentional joke like that potato salad Kickstarter. Some other notably quirky campaigns:
— This $46,000 campaign for “combat kitchenware”
— The more than 8,000 British Pounds raised for leather coin sacks
— More than $25,00 for a cat calendar
— Some dude who raised more than $1,000 to buy Chipotle
While a successful Kickstarter is of course no guarantee that this product will be successful, the fact that this many people are willing to buy in is either profoundly awesome or a sign of the times, depending on your point of view.