Pocket protector
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A pocket protector is a sheath designed to hold writing instruments and other small implements while preventing them from damaging the wearer's shirt (e.g., by tearing or staining by a leaky pen). The pocket protector is designed to fit neatly inside the breast pocket of a person's shirt, and may accommodate pens, pencils, screwdrivers, small slide rules, and various other small items. A flap overlapping the pocket exterior helps to secure the pocket protector in place.
Originally manufactured in the late 1940s and fashioned from polyvinyl chloride (PVC), pocket protectors were first marketed toward corporations as branded promotional fare. However, a more general market for the product soon arose, comprising students, engineers (prominently mechanical), and white-collar workers in sundry fields. Demand for the product fluctuated for decades, and finally plummeted during the 1980s in the face of growing social stigma and stereotypes (that of their wearers being nerds). The use also declined due to the fact that pens had advanced to a point where they rarely leaked at all by that time, and that most people decided to store their writing instruments in other places on their person.
Postmodern culture still harbors a niche market for leather and PVC pocket protectors, and the product survives as "ironic" fashion, functional wear, or both.
[edit] Sources
- Slatalla, Michelle. "History of the Pocket Protector." New York Times 24 June 1999.
- Smith, Hurley US Patent 2,417,786 -- Pocket Shield or Protector 18 March 1947.
- Madea, Jeanette Hurley Smith's Pocket Shield
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