Sustainable Outdoor Backpack
MA Thesis | 2020
Tackling environmental problems caused by the textile industry requires new strategies replacing the current linear business models of products and take both the companies and the consumers into responsibility. This project is investigating the potentials and challenges of three different concepts in order to develop a sustainable design strategy for backpacks.
Concept
This Outdoor Backpack examines the intersection of the three design concepts mono-materials, design for disassembly and co-creation. These concepts offer a founded basis for sustainability through materiality, circularity and consumer research. The bag was created as an exemplary product from the combination of these three concepts.
Mono-Material
The concept of mono-materials focuses on the material composition of a product. This means that a product is made entirely from one type of material, or its components, which can be disassembled, are each made from a single type of material.
Design for Disassembly
The concept of design for disassembly focuses on assembling a product's components in a way that allows for easy disassembly, often without the need for high-tech tools. This facilitates the separation of materials for repair, recycling, upgrading, or replacement, ultimately extending the product's life cycle. The backpack can be disassembled into the outer bag, inner bag, stuffing, buckles, and frame.
Co-Creation
Co-creation involves including potential future users in parts or the entire design process to gain deeper user insights and improve the quality and relevance of the final design. Involving an additional actor provided me, as the designer, with extra inspiration and information, and facilitated a deeper understanding of the problem. For the co-creation process, I conducted a qualitative questionnaire, organized a pandemic-friendly material workshop that participants could complete from home, and carried out supplementary semi-structured interviews.
After completing my master's thesis in collaboration with Heimplanet, I continued working with them to develop a true mono-material backpack designed for industrial production.