I’m already growing hoarse in Golden Gate Park as Charli XCX takes the stage at a San Francisco music festival. The crowd starts jumping as a guitar hook hits, and I reluctantly comply, bouncing around on these aging knees as my chunky Puff necklace almost flies off the chain.
During a lull in the set, someone next to me compliments the necklace, which has stainless steel swirls and a bulbous orange center. Their eyes grow wide as I flip the cap off and explain that it’s a hidden USB flash drive—I plugged the Puff into my phone to show off the animations.
When Harry Isaac and Sebastian Bidegain, working together under the Noware moniker, posted an early prototype of their retro-futuristic necklace on social media in 2025, it quickly racked up over a million views with thousands of waitlist sign-ups to buy one. The duo has spent the last year attempting to turn the online attention on their prototype into a mass-produced reality. Now, Noware is finally ready to ship units this October.
Photograph: Courtesy of Noware
The pair arrived at the WIRED office wearing Puff necklaces, naturally, that match with their trendy gorpcore outfits. They seem nervous, albeit excited, to show off their creation. Neither has had a wide release for their products before, though both are well-versed in whimsical designs. Isaac previously went viral for making an electric scooter that shoots out bubbles. Bidegain was already sculpturally approaching electronics, with prototypes like a vape camera and lo-fi sampler built into a rock.
The design ethos of the Puff is just as much about aesthetics as it is about usefulness. Noware’s marketing materials show a cool girl with a Puff clipped onto her purse, where a Labubu might have sat last year, as well as styled on her neck with a pile of other silver chains. Bidegain says the “squishy, doughy” textures of food partially inspired Puff’s design, as well as cellular biology and tactile devices, like old phones and radios.
“On one end, I want anyone to be able to wear it, just if they think it’s pretty,” he says. “Though, I also want people who actually find utility in flash drives as part of their workflow: photographers, DJs, IT people.”
The small screen in the middle of the necklace is my favorite aspect. When it’s plugged into my phone or laptop, Puff’s center lights up with a customizable design. The Noware duo showed me goopy animations that reacted to the direction I held the phone as well as an aquarium mode. They even put the WIRED logo on it through custom software anyone can use to craft their own designs. The Puff doesn’t have an internal battery, so the USB drive can live as a piece of jewelry far longer than the expiration date of most electronics.
Photograph: Courtesy of Noware
The necklace’s biggest drawback is its price: a whopping $179 for only 128 GB of storage. A basic flash drive with similar storage costs around $30. The duo doesn’t want the Puff to remain that expensive and hopes to reach a more accessible price. “We want it to get cheaper over time, but we’re just trying to make it exist first,” says Isaac. They blame it partially on the inflated cost of memory right now, thanks to the AI boom. Depending on how Puff’s initial release goes, future iterations may include more budget-friendly options, like a nonmetal version.
This experimental device from two New York City-based makers was the perfect accessory for a weekend-long festival, with its retro-futuristic vibe and sharp colors.
“We’re very interested in making electronics that are more opinionated, playful, and personal,” Isaac says. It was a lighthearted conversation piece as I made small talk with vendors, and at least one friend assumed I was hiding drugs in it. (Nope, just a bunch of nudes.)
