8. The “Man from Mars Radio Hat” was supposed to be the future of radio technology, but instead ended up being given away as a promotional item and discontinued within five years
The radio hat was a portable radio system woven into a pith helmet, also known as a safari hat, capable of receiving signals from stations within a 20-mile radius. Unlike many of the items on this list this product actually reached completion, being introduced to stores in early 1949 as the “Man from Mars Radio Hat” and sold for $7.95 across the United States.
Manufactured by the Merri-Lei Corporation, at the time a leading supplier of party hats and novelty goods, the company sought to expand into the battery-operated radio market with an innovative new product. Offering alleged advantages over existing portable radios, including being supposedly waterproof, easy to carry, and fashionable, being available in multiple colors, the device claimed to weigh less than a single pound in total. Despite successfully garnering widespread attention in both the technological and popular magazines of the day, the product never truly received more than the novelty status afforded to the other products sold by the corporation. In fact, one gas station in California offered the hat as a promotional item to people buying their fuel. Within just a couple of years advertisements had stopped, and within a few the hat was completely out of production cycles.