A face in the Denver Zombie Crawl, circa 2008. (Denver Post file photo)
It’s Colorado. We have zombies, and because we have two major interstates crossing the state and intersecting in Denver, we have truckers, too.
And then suddenly, in a peanut-butter-meets-chocolate-meets-Halloween moment earlier this week, we had both.
The “Trucker’s Friend,” a hand-ax / multi-tool from Innovation Factory (photo provided by Innovation Factory)
Zombies and truckers together, in a press release from a little tool company called The Innovation Factory.
Innovation manufactures (in the U.S., no less) a multi-tool it calls the Trucker’s Friend. It’s a curved-blade hand ax, a little over 19 inches long, with notches and grippers and pryers and lifters and a hammer head. It’s billed for use in search-and-rescue, on campouts and hikes, for firefighters and construction crews. It’s useful for pulling on tire chains, chopping brush or firewood, prying out nails.
Innovation manufactures (in the U.S., no less) a multi-tool it calls the Trucker’s Friend. It’s a curved-blade hand ax, a little over 19 inches long, with notches and grippers and pryers and lifters and a hammer head. It’s billed for use in search-and-rescue, on campouts and hikes, for firefighters and construction crews. It’s useful for pulling on tire chains, chopping brush or firewood, prying out nails.
But also zombies.
To the surprise of Innovation Factory inventor-in-chief Marvin Weinberger, the tool has been adopted by the zombie-apocalypse-spoof community, which has been pretty much having the time of its undead life this month. And yes, I’m still in denial about having written the words “zombie-apocalypse-spoof community.” But community it is, virtual, imaginary, literary, filmic and face-to-face.
The Trucker’s friend has been reviewed on Aftermath, the semiserious apocalyptic website that posits that the world is going “to hell in a handbasket of nutters”; Zombease, the lifestyle guide to “Living with the Undead,” which gave away four of the tools on its Facebook page; and Weapon of the Week’s YouTube channel, which each week reviews a different weapon you might need in the event of a Zombie Apocalypse.
You might think this is crazy or wonder, as a co-worker did, why members of the zombie apocalypse spoof community havent’ got a lot better things to do with their time. But kudos to Innovation Factory inventor-in-chief Marvin Weinberger, who is showing the love right back to his product’s surprise fan base by becoming one of the sponsors of the push to get “Night of the Living Dead” director George Romero his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Not only that, the sheath for the tool is made here in Colorado, in Durango, with advice from our fire-prone state’s own firefighters.
With the Annual Denver zombie crawl bringing thousands downtown to the 16th Street Mall, a zombie run in Lakewood, a book out on zombie origami, and AMC’s “The Walking Dead” staggering into its third season, it’s probably time someone asked this question:
Can zombies jump? And if so, can they jump a shark?
No matter. Zombies come and go. Tools, though, last. The Trucker’s Friend sells through Amazon.com for $49.95, and will soon be for sale in select truck stops, Weinberger says.
~blogs.denverpost.com
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