Why is it called Robot vs Sloth?

In the 1980’s, Seattle had a terrible sloth problem. By 1982, they were everywhere. There were so many sloths that people were tripping over them. The sloths would fall out of trees onto their roofs and climb important Seattle buildings; the sloths were taking over Seattle.

During a heavily debated meeting, the Seattle city council voted 7 to 2 in favor of bringing in robots to take care of the growing problem. The robots came in, but went overboard; they got rid of all the sloths except for two which they kept at the Woodland Park Zoo. The robots shipped all of the other sloths safely down to Costa Rica, where they have flourished as a species. The two sloths that were kept at the zoo have since escaped, but that’s another story.

February 10th is the anniversary of the infamous battle between the robots and sloths.

Just kidding! February 10th is the anniversary of our shop, Robot vs Sloth.

Robot vs Sloth was created by the Seattle artist La Ru (Lauren Rudeck) in 2018. La Ru has always been obsessed with robots. When she moved to Seattle in 2006, she would draw robots on stickers and then walk the different neighborhoods leaving behind robots while discovering the city.

La Ru fell in love with sloths at the Jaguar Rescue Center in Costa Rica in 2011. When creating Robot vs Sloth, she thought it would be fun to combine two of her favorite things with a name that would stop people and make them wonder “What the heck?!”

Robot vs Sloth is passionate about animals, especially sloths! Shopping at Robot vs Sloth helps real sloths! We donate a percentage of certain items to Jaguar Rescue Center, which goes towards the care and rehabilitation of sloths and other Costa Rican animals.

Robot vs Sloth features 50+ (mostly) local, independent artists. Some of our artists are also our fabulous staff!