ake a look at your desk drawer: there is bound to be a tangled mess of anonymous black or white cords that are impossible to tell apart without a magnifying glass. Peripherals have pretended to be boring office supplies for years, even though modern high-wattage power blocks demand something with a bit more personality. Designer Matty Benedetto decided to put an end to this dreary uniformity and created something the market did not ask for, but clearly needed.
Matty Benedetto has been inventing things nobody asked for since 2019. Since then, his Unnecessary Inventions studio in Burlington, Vermont, has grown into an impressive archive of useless prototypes. And while those used to be pure social media gags, the creator has finally transitioned to real commercial products through his MATTY store. The Extension-C cable is his latest bizarre idea that turned out to be genuinely practical.
The Extension-C looks exactly like what the name implies: a proper orange extension cord, right down to the rectangular housing on each end, scaled to USB-C.
Industrial facade with serious internals
On the outside, this is a miniature construction extension cord complete with all the genre's tropes. The connector housings are chunky and rectangular, mimicking a classic American power plug shrunk down to laptop port dimensions. Each cap features embossed MATTY branding that looks like a legitimate factory stamp rather than a marketing gimmick. A thick, ribbed strain relief collar finishes off the look of a real job site tool.
Yet beneath the irony lies a surprisingly competent daily workhorse. The ten-foot cable delivers up to 60W of charging power and handles data transfer without a hitch. This capacity easily juices up smartphones, tablets, gaming controllers, and lighter laptops at full speed. The thick braided jacket does more than back up the joke—it gives the cord the exact coil memory of a heavy-duty power line on a construction site.
Three colors and a price tag without the usual markup
Buyers get three shades to choose from: Safety Orange for those who want to commit fully to the construction site aesthetic, Outdoor Green for balconies and gardens, and a subdued Stealth Black. The latter will honestly become the bestseller for anyone who wants to mock sterile office design without screaming about it across an open-plan workspace. At twenty-five dollars, you get an item that costs more than a bulk pack of generic Amazon wires, but sits well below overpriced branded cables.
This is the rare instance where a designer's joke actually makes it to retail without losing its charm along the way. Forget the dull white cords that ruin the look of an expensive power brick on your desk.
The Extension-C costs just enough to let you buy a small, ironic piece of joy without a second thought.