Want the Latest in Headgear? Buy a Yuppie Beverage Helmet

Build a better mousetrap, the old capitalist adage goes, and people will beat a path to your door. Maybe so. But Michael Del Rey is pinning his hopes on building a better beverage helmet.

For the young urban professional who has everything, Del Rey, a young, suburban entrepreneur, has come up with the Yuppie Beverage Helmet.

The helmet is designed to save busy yuppies the time and trouble of hoisting a glass, thus freeing the hands for more productive tasks.

“I tell people it’s a need,” said Del Rey, who runs his operation out of his parents’ home in Diamond Bar. “Like air and bread and water. Yuppies love it. It makes the task of drinking easier. They can spend more time thinking about money. There’s more time to read the Wall Street Journal . . . another 30 seconds to scan stock quotes.”

Anyway, who else but the well-heeled would spend $12 to $15 on such outrageous-looking headgear?

The product consists of a pair of dashboard beverage brackets fitted with Styrofoam cup holders and surgical tubing with a cutoff valve mounted on a plastic batting helmet. The consumer simply fills the cups with his favorite libation, places the helmet atop his head and sucks the liquid into his mouth through the tube.

Most customers buy it as a gift for someone else, but sports fans tend to purchase the helmet for themselves, Del Rey said. The helmet facilitates livelier rooting for the home team and enables fans to shake both fists at umpires and referees.