Creative snuggie owners hit the streets of San Francisco's Snuggie Pub Crawl 

In the all-American tradition of entrepreneurialism, independent inventors have long been creating solutions to problems you never knew you had and found their niche market selling products on the tube through elaborately extended advertisements, known as infomercials. Unlike a thirty-second spot in the middle of an average TV show, an infomercial goes beyond a jingle and a catch phrase by introducing characters and building a relationship with the audience. And once in a while, particular infomercials come along to capture the hearts and imaginations of the nation to become a pop culture icon.

While the Magic Bullet blends old Berman a hangover cure "faster than you can say Bob's your uncle, Fanny's your aunt," the ShamWow and OxyClean are known for their energy-packed segments hawked by enthusiastic salesmen pitching the miraculous benefits of their products to be on par with curing cancer.

But if you think you've seen the best of infomercials, just wait, there's more.

The latest, greatest product to make its way from graveyard-shift programming to mainstream adoration is the Snuggie.

A concept originally created and marketed by a then-college freshman Gary Clegg in 1998, the "Slanket," a blanket with sleeves, made its way into homes across America through the QVC cable television shopping network. After some news coverage and previous availability on the airline catalog, SkyMall, Slanket is still sold mostly through their website.

However after more than a decade with little notoriety and minimal mainstream impact, the Slanket is now in the shadow of the recently infamous infomercial superstar--the Snuggie.

Perfect for reading, typing away at a laptop or double fisting a pair of brewskies on a Friday night, the Snuggie allows its inhabitant to remain warm and cozy with hands free. Recognizing the fun in the function of the Snuggie, thousands of Snuggie-clad partiers have come together for Snuggie Pub Crawls, walking and drinking their way through cities across the nation.

With little more than a month between inception and execution, San Francisco's Snuggie Pub Crawl was created by Keith Fritz, twenty-five, who created a gladiator styled Snuggie for the occasion and Patricia Prislin, twenty-four, who fashioned her Snuggie as a bull-ready matador. Sure that San Francisco would be the perfect place for the best and biggest Snuggie celebration, the pair soon began spreading the word, through their Yelp and Facebook accounts.

From the start Fritz and Prislin made it clear that just a simple off-the-rack Snuggie wouldn't do. For the crawl, wearing your heart (or whatever else you can think of) on your sleeves is highly encouraged. For this group, an authentic Snuggie alone is simply not enough. Participants are encouraged to dress up, decorate, and distort their Snuggies. Whether it is a blue, aqua, or burgundy drapery, each Snuggie provides a wearable canvas for artistic expression and personalization. Like snowflakes or fingerprints, the more than two hundred individual crawlers that showed up on Friday, March 20 proved that this "one-size-fits-all" accessory could be made one of a kind.

Those who went above and beyond presented their Snuggie-selves in an American-Idol style competition. Yelper Luke A. wore his gay pride themed Snuggie-suit, complete with "enter here" sign ironed on his back side and the formfitting Lady Snug-a worn by Laura Wullschleger, who stood out in the crawl in her blue Snuggie, Lady Gaga wig, white tights and all. The "sluttiest" Snuggie interpretation was awarded to Jenny Wilner, who got native with her creation as Indian princess "Snugagawea/Snugahontus." Finally it was the Snuggie Bunnies, who wore rabbit ears, who used their free hands to carry Easter baskets full of judge-bribing candy to take the title of Best Group.

As the night progressed, the fleece-mafia outgrew bars and spilled out onto Polk Street, scattering from the Marina to the Tenderloin inciting excitement and confusion in passers-by. With Snuggie Pub Crawls continuing to pop up around the country, one can only wonder what hilarious hijinks the next advertorial phenomenon will bring.