Did you fall for our April Fool's Day story about a Chesterfield business' new 'smart zip'?

Fred’s Haberdashery on West Bars in the town centre jokingly launched the i-Zip today (April 1) along with a video demonstrating how the fake voice activated technology works to help people get dressed and undressed quicker than ever before.

The Chesterfield business, which has been open for click and collect deliveries during lockdown, said they were the first to develop a self fastening zip app as part of the prank.

To enable the smart zip to work through the app, customers were told they just needed to say “Alexa unzip me!” into their Apple, Android, Amazon and Google smart home devices.

Business owners Steve and Emily Lord, who took over Fred’s Haberdashery in February last year, even predicted Apple would soon be trying to ‘jump on the bandwagon’ after the success of their joke launch, by creating a copycat smartphone zip app.

The new technology claimed to feature a schedule and timer facility, which would allow the i-Zip to automatically zip or unzip you as required – enabling users to create a a routine within Alexa, so that every time they enter the bathroom they could theoretically be unzipped and then zipped up again when they leave.

"It will just hopefully make life easier, like all these other gadgets out there", Emily laughed.

"It is absolutely unbelievable, I couldn't it when I saw my husband using it.

"I can't believe no one else has come up with the idea yet.

"The i-Zip is just the start of it all I think, this really could take us anywhere."

The new app was said to be the first in a new product line of smart dressmaking products from the Chesterfield haberdashery – who even urged customers to ‘take control of your own zips’ and share management permissions on the i-Zip with their partners ‘if they dare’ as part of the fake promotion.

Emily joked: "I think it could be amazing, I think everybody will want one now it's been unveiled.

"There's a big buzz around the business, everyone is really excited.”

To view the April Fool’s Day app, click here.

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