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Unless you've been living under a rock for the last several years, then you already know that iPod MP3 players have taken the entire world by storm. It seems that everyone from grade school children to senior citizens can be seen sporting carrying around one of these portable music players. Even though numerous other companies are have entered the lucrative MP3 player market, Apple still has a chokehold on the industry thanks to the innovative iPod.

It's interesting to note that in addition to the iPod being a boon for Apple's bottom line (which is of course to be expected), these trendy devices have brought previously unknown companies additional revenues from manufacturing and selling iPod accessories. Anyone who owns an iPod will tell you that the device is great on its own, but is absolutely fantastic when dressed up with various accessories. That means companies that produce cases, lanyards, armbands, FM transmitters, and speakers are experiencing an incredible boom thanks to iPod sales.

Now, clothing companies are also scrambling to cash in on the trend by manufacturing clothes that are specially equipped to make it easier for the wearer to access his or her iPod. Usually, a person would have to stow the iPod away in a pocket, purse, or backpack, or else secure via an extra accessory such as a belt clip, armband, or lanyard. With iPod clothing, the task of operating an iPod becomes much easier because the clothes either have specially integrated buttons, or allow quick access to the controls on the device.

The first time I saw iPod-specific clothing was during the Turin Olympic Games a few months ago. Members of the United States men's and women's snowboarding team were wearing special jackets that allowed them to listen to their iPods while going through their snowboarding runs. Apparently, iPod jackets have been around in the snowboarding world for quite some time now; but as I said, I first saw it during the Olympics.

Since then, I have noticed several more articles of clothing that are produced specifically for iPod users. First of all, a company called Kenpo, Inc., sells jackets with an iPod pocket on the inside, and iPod controls on the sleeves. In order for the jacket to work, you must first connect your iPod to the dock inside the jacket. The dock allows the control buttons on the jacket's sleeves to operate the iPod, so all you have to do is touch your sleeve in order to skip a song, repeat a song, turn the volume up or down, or turn your iPod off. At a suggested retail price of $275, however, the Kenpo iPod jacket probably a bit out of range of the younger iPod crowd. After all, why would they want to spend that kind of money on a jacket when they could either buy a new iPod or get a couple hundred songs from iTunes for the same price?

Tunewear is another company that offers iPod-specific clothing. Currently, the Tunewear lineup is limited to t-shirts. These iPod t-shirts appear to be regular t-shirts with the addition of a plastic pouch that can house the iPod. In addition, there is another component on the t-shirt that allows wearers to wind up their headphone cord to keep it out of the way. I wasn't able to find out a suggested retail price for the Tunewear t-shirts, but I have to say that the shirts don't look very good at all. I know everyone has their own taste in clothing and that some people are sure to love the Tunewear iPod shirts. But they look kind of odd because the plastic iPod pouch looks like it's attached to the shirt as an afterthought. I can tell you right now that I wouldn't want to wear one of those out in public!

Another piece of iPod specific clothing that I have seen recently is an iPod belt from TuneBuckle. This piece looks just like a regular belt, except that it has an elongated buckle in the front. The wearers iPod fits into the belt buckle in a horizontal (rather than vertical) position.

After reading a review of the TuneBuckle belt, I found that there are a couple of problems with this design. First of all, it doesn't allow you to see your iPod screen, which means that you can't scroll through your playlists to find a specific song. Instead, you have to go through your songs one by one using only your Forward and Back buttons. Second, the belt buckle itself has a highly polished chrome finish, which I guess is similar to the backs of iPods. One reviewer said that because of this chrome finish, the belt buckle inevitably starts to show off fingerprints and dirt smudges after a short time. Anyone who has had that problem with their iPods knows how unsightly chrome becomes when it's dirty.

In addition to the products mentioned here, Levi Strauss and Company have announced that they will be manufacturing iPod jeans in the near future. The jeans will reportedly allow users to carry and access their iPods without showing a bulge in their pockets that would tip other people off to the iPod's presence.

All in all, I have to say that I'm not very surprised that all of these iPod-specific clothing options exist. In fact, the only thing that does surprise me is that there aren't even more clothing companies getting in on the action. Maybe we'll see that soon enough!