A better student athlete user experience.

As a varsity college athlete I used my share of athletic gear. Each morning it was always a challenge to pack notes and books for class, clothes and shoes for practice, and snacks and water to stay fueled throughout the day. After a while I resorted to using two backpacks and taking frequent trips to my dorm to swap bags. But I wasn’t satisfied. So I decided to design my own solution for a better student athlete user experience. I spent the winter of 2014 sketching out new backpack ideas, sewing together a prototype, and testing it throughout a semester. Then in the summer of 2014 I worked with a contract manufacturer to refine the prototype and launched a Kickstarter campaign to try to bring the new product to market. I ultimately failed to reach my funding goal but the experience taught me a lot about what goes into successfully taking a product from concept to production. It was a very humbling learning experience.

Urban-inspired athletic style.

The prospective consumer I was designing for was a high school or college level student athlete. They have class during the day and practice in the afternoon every weekday, as well as day-long competitions on weekends. Their ideal sports backpack can fit all of their notebooks and practice gear during the week but can also hold extra drinks and snacks for competitions. They have an athletic style and are looking for a backpack that complements that aesthetic.

When I analyzed emerging fashion trends from Spring-Summer 2014 fashion shows I noticed that there was a lot of grayscale athletic/casual wear. As a result, I decided to use a gray palette for my product. Tying in with the gray colors, the mood I was after was heavily inspired by the rugged and architectural feel of the urban environment.

Ignoring contemporary fashion trends.

The popular athletic style while I began designing this bag in January 2014 involved bold, neon colors. Nike had paved the way with their vibrant “Volt Green” color and most brands had followed their lead. But because this trend first became popular in 2012, I knew it was likely on its way out. And, not knowing for certain what new trend would replace it, I decided to focus on a gray palette and an urban/street feel for the backpack. My theory was that because this style was inspired by an environment instead of current fashion trends, it would age gracefully while existing trends changed over time. It was my way of ensuring that the backpack wouldn’t look like “last years model” when it was finally produced.

As a result, the initial ideation involved both exploring design solutions to the user experience problems and honing in on an architectural aesthetic.

Refining the concept.

After testing my prototype for a few months I contacted a backpack manufacturer in Quanzhou, China to help me create the final product. Together we iterated through three versions of the bag until we honed in on the final design. The most notable refinement between the initial and final prototypes was the method of attaching the shoe bag to the backpack. The Velcro system of the first bag had user experience issues so was replaced with 4 discrete clips. This proved to be a quicker, quieter, and more robust method of attachment. We also tested various shades of gray while looking for a color that felt like it fit into the urban environment. The final hue we decided upon was reminiscent of steel and concrete.