April Fools’ 2025: Dbrand’s new skins let you ‘touch grass’ without the hassle of going outside

Dbrand’s Touch Grass postulation is disposable for implicit 100 devices. | Image: Dbrand

Dbrand wants you to consciousness little blameworthy astir having your look buried successful a surface each time and not getting extracurricular to ‘touch grass.’ The company’s latest postulation of skins lets you wrapper your gadgets successful agleam greenish artificial turf truthful you tin touch writer whenever you want and nary substance wherever you are.

The Touch Grass postulation is disposable present done Dbrand’s website for much than 100 antithetic devices with pricing akin to its different premium skins: $29.95 for smartphones, $49.95 for tablets, and $69.95 for laptops.

Despite the April 1st timing, the Touch Grass postulation isn’t a prank, Dbrand CEO Adam Ijaz assures The Verge. “Each year, April 1st rolls astir and companies travel implicit themselves to spot who tin beryllium the slightest funny. We, connected the different hand, instrumentality the accidental to motorboat existent products. Are they drenched successful satire? Yes — but they’re existent products you tin buy.”

The skins are covered successful thousands of tiny polyethylene strands utilizing a method called electrostatic flocking, Ijaz explains. “Each polyethylene strand is electrically charged, causing it to basal upright and propel straight onto an adhesive-coated surface. In this application, the adhesive coating is applied straight to our classical 3M vinyl tegument material.”

To guarantee users don’t extremity up covered successful tiny greenish pieces of artificial writer and to forestall the particles from uncovering their mode wrong devices, the strands are “embedded into an adhesive furniture that covers astir 25% of the strand’s height,” Ijaz says. The institution subjected the skins to 10,000 abrasive hitch cycles during durability investigating and recovered “no issues with strands detaching oregon ‘bald patches’ forming.”

However, the institution recovered its accepted methods for cutting the skins resulted successful the fake writer strands yet breaking disconnected astatine the edges. The solution was to power to laser cutting alternatively of die-cutting. “The vigor from laser cutting efficaciously cauterizes (melts) the polyethylene strands on the perimeter,” Ijaz says. “This melting creates a sealed edge, bonding unneurotic the strands astir the border. Ultimately, this was the cardinal to preventing blades of writer astir the borderline from loosening oregon shedding implicit time.”

The biggest contented that Dbrand has recovered with the Touch Grass skins is that they besides thin to relation arsenic effectual yet unintentional lint catchers, but the institution says they tin beryllium easy cleaned by mildly wiping them.

It’s a amusive idea, but successful a clip erstwhile microplastics are turning up successful immoderate very concerning places, we whitethorn not request different merchandise perchance adding to the occupation erstwhile it’s yet discarded.