36 Product Designs So Bad They Make You Question Reality

John Summers • Contributor

Apr 12, 2025 10:00 PM EDT

Is This Real Life or an Extended Fever Dream from a Design School Dropout?

Sometimes I think the multiverse is real—not because of quantum physics or Marvel movies, but because of these products. Because there's no way these abominations of design came from the same universe that gave us the iPhone and IKEA. I'm talking about things so hideously impractical, so bafflingly unnecessary, that they make you stop mid-scroll and go, "...but why?"

Toilet paper earrings? Check. A pool float shaped like a giant maxi-pad? Unfortunately, yes. A bookshelf that literally doubles as a coffin? Absolutely. Somewhere out there, someone looked at a pair of earbuds and thought, "What this really needs is an octopus tentacle." And don't even get me started on the cockroach underwear. I didn't need that image in my life—and now neither do you.

These aren't just bad products. These are conceptual disasters. Designs that somehow made it past a boardroom full of people who presumably had working eyes and functioning brains. And you know what? I love them for it.

So lean into the chaos. Let confusion wash over you like the horrifying maxi-pad floatie in a pool of regret. Here are 36 product designs so bad, they loop back around to iconic.

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