tike who grow up in thenortheastin the 1980s were pretty invested in a fad that might have gone unnoticed in warmer part of the country . Cajoling their parents at department stores during shopping trip , 100 of yard of them came home sporting a pair of Freezy Freakies — thickset winter gloves that come with a build up - in parlor trick . When the temperature dipped below 40 ° F , an image would of a sudden appear on the back part of the fabric .
Swany America Corporation , which made , marketed , and distributed the baseball glove , releasedmore than 30 original designs beginning in 1980 . There was a robot , a unicorn , rocket ships , ballerina , rainbow , snowflakes , and various sports themes , though the “ I do it Snow ” image ( below ) may have been the most pop overall . At the acme of Freezy mania , Swany was moving300,000pairs of gloves per year , which accounted for about 20 percentage of their overall sales .
“ boy loved the robot design , ” Bruce Weinberg , Swany ’s vice president and a former sales director for Freezy Freakies , tell Mental Floss . “ Above 40 degrees , the icon would disappear . ”
The secret to the $ 13 Freakies was thermochromic ink , a temperature - sensitivedyethat ’s been used in temper rings and heat - raw food label and can seem translucent until it ’s expose to quick temperatures . Swany licensed the ink from Pilot , the Japanese - found pen company , after Swany chief operating officer Etsuo Miyoshi saw the engineering and thought it would be a good burst for his glove - focused performance . ( Though theyexperimentedwith making luggage in the 1990s , Swany has predominantly been a manufacturer of higher - end ski gloves . )
Weinberg is n’t trusted how Miyoshi go under on the “ Freezy Freakies ” name — the president is now turn in — but tell Miyoshi knew they had a hit early on . “ After a few seasons , they could order they had a achiever product , ” he says . Swany even put advertising dollar bill into boob tube commercials , a rare strategy for glove - makers not named Isotoner .
Pilot was able to adjust the temperature at which the ink would become cobwebby , or vice versa . If Thomas Kyd were impatient , or if it chance to be during the summer , Weinberg says it was n’t uncommon to find Freezy Freakies stuck in thefreezerso they could materialize their art excogitation . “ At craft show , we ’d do something similar with some Methedrine or a cold soda water , ” he allege . “ All of a sudden , some ice-skating rink cubes would make it change , and buyers would retrieve that was really cool . ”
The Freakies were such a hit that Swany licensedjacketsand consider alter the name of the party to the same name as the glove . It ’s belike just as well they did n’t : While Freakies survive well over a decade , by the nineties , things had cooled . In the new millennium , Swany was down to sell just a few hundred pairs a year . Color - changing ink for coffee bean mug or beer cans was more permeating , wearing down the novelty ; knock - offs had also grabbedlicensedcartoon part , which Swany was never interested in act on .
The brand was dormant when a caller named Buffoonery approached Swany in 2013 to license Freezy Freakies for a crowdfunded revival . This meter , the glove came in adult sizes for $ 34 . The partnership has been successful , and Weinberg says Buffoonery has just signed an extension to commence producing Kyd ’ glove .
“ Parents will probably want matching I for their kids , ” Weinberg says . And both might still wind up in the deep freezer .
