It’s touted as “Levi Strauss meets Calvin Klein,” and this fine piece of fashion can be yours for just $37.99. Except it won’t be for you.
The item in question is a chicken diaper made by FeatherWear, and if you’ve never heard of chicken diapers, well, start by knowing they’re a thing.
In a piece for the Outline, Michael Waters explores “the booming business of luxury chicken diapers,” which are designed to do the obvious: catch chicken poop. (Waters explains chickens don’t both urinate and excrete, but simply produce excrement.)
The diapers have been embraced by both chicken owners who want to bring their pets inside without sullying the house and Instagrammers who think it’s just cute to post a photo of a chicken in a diaper.
As for their popularity level, Waters shares the story of Julie Baker, who with her young daughter Abigail made one for one of the chickens Abigail liked to bring inside from their Claremont, New Hampshire, farm. After they got a few requests from others, Baker decided to have her homeschooled daughter launch an online store as a lesson.
Now they’re selling up to 1,000 diapers a month at $18 a pop, and the demand has her shipping to all 50 states.
Waters gets into the nitty-gritty, explaining how the rise of urban chicken raising is feeding the trend and charting the different types of diapers available (some you just wipe the excrement out of while others require paper-towel inserts). He also touches on a side accessory: the chicken dress.
Read the full piece and see photos here.
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