Pitchfork

Front page photo by Kathryn Yu

YACHT's Jona Bechtolt: party-starter, penny picker-upper, and now, shrewd businessman. Within days of the unveiling of Apple's impressively-thin new laptop, Bechtolt is all poised to cash in on MacBook Air hysteria (hyst-Air-ia?).

Taking to heart Steve Jobs' claim that the MacBook Air will fit in a standard manila business envelope (seeing is believing), Bechtolt and frequent collaborator Claire L. Evans devised the perfect accessory: the manila envelope-styled protective laptop sleeve (pictured above). The pair readily admits it's an "obvious" idea, but who cares when it's also probably a massively lucrative one?

"AirMail", as they're calling it, is available for pre-order now. Bechtolt and Evans plan to ship these things out in about two weeks, to coincide with the arrival of the first wave of MacBook Airs.

Straight from the product's website: "The AirMail laptop sleeve is handmade out of durable upholstery-grade vinyl, and lined with fuzzy, soft fleece. All AirMail sleeves have the same dimensions as standard interoffice manila envelopes, which will serve to remind you-- and everyone around you-- that your new MacBook Air really is the thinnest laptop in the world!" Um, nerd alert!

Thanks to reader Joseph Darragh for the tip.

Catch YACHT and his trusty MacBook on a handful of upcoming gigs, including two this weekend. Then you can say you knew him before he went all parvenu and started buying real yachts-- Ah! Now your whole scheme becomes clear, Bechtolt!

YACHT:

01-18 Worcester, MA - Clark University
01-19 Richmond, IN - Earlham College
03-07 Los Angeles, CA - Natural History Museum *
04-19 Purchase, NY - SUNY Purchase

* with Why?