Four years after it launched its first iPhone-friendly jeans, Zagreb, Croatia-based startup WTFJeans has "upgraded" its product to version 3.

The main feature of WTFJeans 3 is still a microfiber-lined, iPhone-friendly pocket. The pockets (there are two) are optimized for the iPhone 4, 4S, 5 and 5S and it cleans your device's screen as you pull it out.

The biggest improvement is something that the project's founder, Pedja Puselja, claims hasn't been done in the world of gadget-friendly jeans: WTFJeans 3 are coated with a nano-layer that protects the jeans (and the iPhone inside them) from light rain and spills. It also holds other liquids at bay, including wine and oil, protecting — to a degree — your jeans from getting dirty.

Puselja is visibly excited as he pours water over the WTFJeans 3 prototype — which, interestingly enough, are designed in Croatia but manufactured in Serbia — and the water just slides from the jeans, leaving only the slightest wet stains.

"I have no idea why the big brands aren't doing this. As a gadget lover, I just want to improve the jeans — that's why we're adding all these features."

We've had some hands-on time with the WTFJeans 3, and we can attest that the nanocoating tech really works, as you can see in the short video below. The nano-protection is at its best with small amounts of water, and it depends whether you pour it on a smooth part of the jean or a crumpled one — the latter will yield much worse results. As such, it definitely won't protect your jeans from heavy rain, and if you throw them into water, Puselja admits, they will get wet. But, a few drops of liquid will simply roll off the jeans like it would from a water-resistant tent fabric.

It doesn't last forever, though. Mr. Puselja claims the water-repellant coating will withstand 20 to 40 washes; we had no way to test that out, so you'll have to take his word for it.

There are other nifty features; for example, one pocket now comes with a copper-based radiation shield, which you can place between the iPhone and your body. The actual health-benefits of such protection are outside the scope of this article, but the copper-mesh material used in WTFJeans should definitely block the kind of radiation a cellphone would emit.

A question that immediately pops up is compatibility with other devices. Unfortunately, owners of 5-inch and larger Android devices likely won't be able to stuff their smartphone in the quite narrow pocket.

"I'm an iPhone user, and I wanted to associate the WTFJeans brand primarily with the iPhone," Puselja tells us. "Perhaps in the future we will consider other models, but for now we're only officially supporting the iPhone."

Another issue that potentially clouds the project is the fate of the original WTFJeans. After seeing initial success in pre-orders, Puselja had his funds locked down by PayPal due to breach of PayPal's TOS, which at the time did not allow for very early pre-orders. "What's done is done," said Puselja. "We did what we could to refund each and every customer the first time around. This is a different company now; only the brand is the same. We don't handle payments through PayPal anymore, and we're certain the same issues will not happen again."

WTFJeans are available exclusively at WTFJeans.com, for the price of 127 euros ($175) plus shipping.

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