100 Percent Hybrid

Sara got a pair of shoes in the mail from Zappos today. On the shoebox, in big, bold lettering, were the words “100% HYBRID.”

Is it just me, or is that an oxymoron? Isn’t it like saying that something is completely partial? (And I don’t mean partial in the sense of biased.) Anyway, it struck me as kind of funny.

This entry was posted in language. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.

6 Responses to 100 Percent Hybrid

  1. Camille DeBoer says:

    Interesting observation. One of our local news websites this week announced the cancellation of the Tulip Time fireworks as having occurred “two straight days in a row.” I guess that’s less oxymoron and more redundant but still…. I would tolerate a little more precision.

  2. Debbi says:

    I never heard that term in reference to shoes! What kind were they? I think you should take a picture of it and send it to Consumer Reports so that they can use it on the last page of blooper ads!

  3. Viper007Bond says:

    Actually, while poorly worded, “100% Hybrid” makes sense. It means that the entire item is a hybrid rather than only part of it being a hybrid and the rest something else.

  4. kevin says:

    Christina recently got some shoes of the same brand and same box. I guess I didn’t consider what that means or how something can be ‘100% hybrid.’ Buzzwords like ‘hybrid’ are tossed around so casually these days I seldom notice anymore.

  5. Diane says:

    hahaha

  6. Dennis says:

    I have seen “100% REPRODUCTION” before, but the hybrid disclaimer’s definitely a new one. Oh, where are ye authenticitie?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes:
<a href="" title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <s> <strike> <strong> <div align="" class="" dir="" id="" lang="" style="" xml:lang=""> <param name="" value=""> <pre style="" name="" class="" lang="" width="">