The rivalry of our time: Slanket vs. Snuggie

Forget about Angelina vs. Aniston, it's all about the Snuggie vs. the Slanket.Yes, the more famous Snuggie, the blanket with sleeves that's taking the world by storm, has a higher-end competitor in the Slanket. Like Angelina, the Slanket is pricier, more refined, and alluring while the Snuggie has Aniston's girl-next-door accessibility. Both are perfect for couch-potato evenings in a cold apartment: a blanket to keep you warm with sleeves to keep your hands free so that you can use the remote or your laptop to browse LA Pretty (let's stop kidding ourselves about the free book-light for reading, who reads?).

But how do you choose between the two? The great debate has unfolded on MetaFilter, and it points out distinct differences besides just the higher price tag of the Slanket. I got my Snuggie for $15 at Bed, Bath & Beyond, while the Slanket is available for $38 on their website and $30 from QVC.

While the Snuggie is made of fleece, the Slanket is made of thicker (therefore, warmer) Polyester Microfiber. I also find that the fleece of the Snuggie is super staticy and catches everything. It's pretty thin and, well, cheap. Plus there's a significant difference in size. The Slanket's official website says it's 60 X 95 inches, while QVC claims that it's 57 x 98. Either way, it's much larger than the Snuggie's dimension of 48 x 71, the better to keep your toesies from being exposed to the cold.

The higher priced Slanket comes in more colors and is bigger, softer, and warmer.

MetaFilter commenter "cowbellemoo" points out that this cumbersome size means that it will be more difficult to take part in any off-the-couch activity whilst wearing the Slanket:
I can confirm that it's impossible to get up and do anything else when 'wearing' the slanket. It's simply too heavy/long/baggy. I see this as a feature, not a bug.
This could impede one from the "I'm wearing this ironically" activities that have cropped up with the Snuggie as featured in a New York Times article and will be again played out in the Los Angeles Snuggie Pub Crawl (date still TBA).

So in a nutshell, if you're serious about staying warm and getting cozy on the couch, it's all about the Slanket, but if you're into this "Ha HA it's funny and if it were brown and I wore it backwards, I could be a Jedi Knight" mode of thinking, then I'm sure you'll be fine with the Snuggie.

But to make things more complicated, an LA Pretty (of course!) created a more chic, higher-end, and expensive version of her own called the Nuddle. Nap + Cuddle = Nuddle, get it? Debra Messing, Angie Harmon, Rebecca Gayheart, and Lauren Conrad all adore their Nuddles. And they should, since they cost about $100 (though there's a 20% off sale going on right now).

Smaller than the Slanket (it's 55 x 71) the shorter size is made up for because it has a pocket for your feet - hooray for warm toesies! And instead of sleeves, the blanket has slits for your arms to go through and a built-in muff to keep your hands warm while your arms are free. Available in two colors, chocolate and latte, it's a more glamorous alternative to the Snuggie and Slanket, but is it worth the price? We'll have to try it out and see.