On Saturday, Mashable released a video on social media about an inflatable, floating camping tent from a company called SmithFly.
SmithFly describes the “Shoal Tent,” which is currently sold out, but retails for $1,999 when available, as “a first of its kind inflatable floating raft with a tent topper that allows you to sleep out on the water.”
The camping, hunting, and fishing gear company adds: “Camp on your favorite farm pond, saltwater flat, spring creek or eddy on your favorite river. The world is your waterbed.”
In the video shared by Mashable, an individual leaps into the tent, and drifts into what appears to be a fairly placid river. This didn’t stop Twitter users from coming up with the absolute worst-case scenarios for what could happen to owners of the Shoal Tent:
Alligators: We love this!
Why simply observe a majestic waterfall when you can go hurdling over it in a nylon coffin?
Why live when you can die?
“Camped on a river” fits perfectly on a gravestone.
I love all these people worried about waterfalls, as if waking up in the dark of night fully submerged in a deflated, entangled, plastic body bag isn’t a literal nightmare come to reality.
For all those people who are sick and tired of feeling “safe” while they sleep.
Because I don’t want to wake up drowning in a big bag of nylon.
“Wanna wake up lost and confused with no way to get back to land? We have the product for you!”
It’s literally Doordash for Crocs and Piranhas.
Also known as Darwin’s water balloon.
That is the CEO of the company who designed this.
Others mocked the idea itself:
Google “inflatable liferaft” and get back to me about this revolutionary groundbreaking idea no-one ever had before.
So it’s a house boat for people who can’t afford a house…or a boat?
I have a pop-up tent for land use. Never occurred to me how much more fun it would be trying to put it away soaking wet.
Explain to me how I’m supposed to use the bathroom in the middle of the night when on this thing.
It comes complete with catheter.
It steers by…what, telekinesis?
One user actually suggested that the tent could be a good idea for survival situations:
This shouldn’t be marketed as a recreation thing. It should be marketed as an emergency survival kit for people in flood areas. It could fit a family and the dog too.
The idea isn’t to sell them to citizens but sell them to FEMA to deploy during/ in the immediate aftermath of an emergency. There’s a lot of people like the elderly & disabled that can’t leave fast during an emergency who could at least stand a fighting chance with these.
SmithFly even replied, writing: “We love this idea and definitely want to work on it in the future. We think these things could actually help people stay closer to home during high water events.”
According to the SmithFly website, the Shoal Tent won’t be available for purchase for between six and eight weeks because of “popular demand.”