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Final Designs

2009-12-19T14:50:00.000-08:00

If you haven't been following this project from the beginning, we have been trying to design fashionable women's cycling apparel. We have a couple of designs to show you but first you will be shown our process.

We arrive at this design by starting off with a little research. To start, we took a look at bikers in the Chicago area. We were looking at how bikers ride their bikes and what type of apparel they wore. We wanted to find out who was out there and who were Po Campo's target buyers.

These were the women that we thought were Po Campo's target market: Women on the go, women in their mid 20's and up, and women that want to look good as they ride.

We conducted interviews from a few women cyclers that we thought fit into the image of Po Campo. From those interviews we discovered that one of the main problems for women cyclers besides getting sweaty is the weather. There isn't a whole lot out there for people in terms of fashionable cycling gear, especially for severe weather conditions. These two statements led us to our two designs: the first being gloves and the second being a raincoat.

Knowing that we were looking in to more fashion based products we started looking at other companies that were trying to do the same thing. We found some cool trends and noted what Po Campo would have to compete with if they decided to start a fashion line.

This brings us to our first design: the glove.

We started out trying to come up with different styles and functions. Trying to find a cool new twist that would separate this glove from an ordinary one into a cycling glove. When we sent these over to get feedback from Emily and Maria at Po Campo, they said they liked the long glove look but they advised us to keep all seasons in mind. So, we tried to incorporate those two aspects into some more concepts and came up with this next idea. The concept behind this is that you would have a sporty glove for your functional aspect and an over arm warmer for the fashionable aspect. This way you could wear the regular glove for any season and when it got colder you could slip this arm warmer over it.

We tested our initial idea out. The glove worked well and we really liked the way they worked together. The one thing we found was that when we make our final prototype we have to make the glove more intuitive because it was hard to decipher which glove went to which hand.

We reworked our sketches trying to come up with a look for Po Campo. The function was there, we just need to figure out this look.

We finalized our ideas and this is the design we came up with. In this picture and the next few below you will see the different views and functions of the glove. Right now the design is just the top portion of the two piece glove, which could function all on its own. The buttons are mostly aesthetics but the top button (one closet to your hand) is used to keep the finger flap back when you don't feel it's necessary to use. There is a reflective strip on the front of the flap for easy visibility when signaling at night.

Now our second design: the raincoat.

Like the gloves, we started off with ideation and trying to find what would be useful to cyclers when it comes to riding in the rain. We also sent these concepts over to Po Campo and they expressed interest in the angled cuts of the coats. We also got some positive feedback with the concepts we had with trying to hide the reflective functions. The idea was to provide a coat that looked like a regular everyday fashionable raincoat while secretively hiding its cycling functions. The shawl function was also given some interest.

We tried out our ideas with a preliminary mock up and we found some things that we need to take care of. The shawl was restricting to the movement of the tester's arms. Also, having seen the plain raincoat on, we knew we wanted to custom make our coat to be sleek and a little more form fitting. On the mock up we tried out this "dusters" idea that we had not sketched out yet. It worked okay but the placement of the inner straps need to be better thought out.

Like the gloves, we needed to figure out what Po Campo's apparel would look like. We took a look at what was out on the market and tried to incorporate some existing current trends into some designs. Po Campo liked where the coat was going, but they told us to keep it simple, don't complicate the design too much. We took this advice and tried to not build up the coat with unnecessary elements and kept what was functional and worked around that.

This is our final design. In this and the pictures below you can see the functional aspects. We decided to stick to simple classic colors for now but the possibilities are endless.

We initially wanted a sleeve that unzipped and you could pull down the sleeve to expose reflective material as well as provide more coverage for your wrists, but in the making of the coat we came to realize that it became too bulky. We altered our design by providing an extra layer of material at the elbow that you can roll up to expose reflective material. You can also lengthen the sleeve exposing more reflective material by rolling down the cuffs of the sleeves.

Inside the coat are straps that you can tie around your leg to keep the coat closer to your legs. This is the dusters idea. It provides a way for you to cover your legs so it keeps them dry while it's raining.

Lastly, the shawl allows you to keep your head and shoulders, the two biggest areas where rain collects on your body while riding, dry. The shawl attaches to the coat using the toggle buttons that the coat already uses to keep it closed. The ability to remove the shawl enforces the idea that you can have this fashionable coat but when it's time to ride in the rain you have this feature to keep you dry.

We would like to thank Emily and Maria for taking the time out of their busy schedules to help give us direction in our designs. Thank you to Carl and Tao for instructing us this semester. And thank you to every one who took the time to come out and hear us talk about our designs on the 16th.

Fashion

2009-11-11T07:21:00.000-08:00

At this point we wanted to explore what Po Campo's apperal would actually look like. We were taking inspiration from modern fashions for a lot of different designers and put our own twist on it.

2009-11-11T07:04:00.000-08:00

We refined both our ideas based upon the feed back we got from Emily at Po Campo and our peers and narrowed our ideas down to these two basic concepts. For the raincoat we want to push forward with the dusters concept. The dusters would allow your legs to keep dry as well as your upper body. We haven't narrowed down the placement of all the reflectivity but one function we are keeping are the expandable sleeves. The sleeves would unzip, exposing reflective material as well as lengthening the sleeves so when your in cycling position your wrists are exposed to the weather. Also we like the idea of it being a two piece item. The top layer being a removable hood and shoulder protection. This way the hood can be removed to leave the coat a little more fashionable.

The gloves are also a two piece product. Emily suggested that we think about seasons, what would a glove look like if it were ment for more than one season? We came up with this. The top layer would be more of a arm warmer with finger warmers. The bottom layer would be more of the cycling function, providing padding and reflection. Something more sporty on the bottom and the top layer hiding that with fashion.

We then prototyped our idea and tested it on our friend. From the testing we found out that the top layer of the coat didn't move very well when expanding the arms. It bunched up. The gloves worked well, we just have to figure out how they actually are going to look as far as fabric and color.

2009-11-11T06:44:00.000-08:00

Our raincoat concepts were pretty broad at this point. Basically trying to figure out some unique functionality aspect that we thought would be necessary when biking. When we presented to our peers we got positive feed back from the drawstring concept, the dusters idea, as well as the sexy diagonal cuts.

We decide to push forward with our glove idea as well as our raincoat concept. We were trying to figure out what type of functionality it would have with out loosing its fashion sense. We are playing around with the idea of incorporating a emergency contact band for safety reasons because it should be one of the first places to look when someone is injured.

Ideation, Thought Process

2009-10-20T10:54:00.000-07:00

Over the past couple of weeks or so we have been spend our time thinking through some of our initial ideas. Our first round of ideas seemed a little too impractical for what we were trying to achieve, so we took pieces from those ideas and made them into something workable. I would say we have 3 concrete ideas that we think we are going to push forward.

The first (not in order of pictures below) would be our glove idea. We were thinking something that would be fashionable yet still provide the functionality of being a cyclist. A cycler needs to be seen at night and the more reflective gear and lights you have, the better. We were playing around with a solar idea, which was in our impractical idea but still interesting to think about. From there we were thinking about different cool ways in which we could incorporate visibility into these gloves. Also we designed this longer looking glove to resemble the the opera glove but in a weather gear sense. We are still trying to pick the best options for the functionality of the glove.

Second, we are working on a rain coat for women cyclist. This rain coat again must incorporate visibility for the cycler as well has providing a water proof or resistant function. We are trying to decide what works best for looks as well as function. We were playing around with the idea of it some how covering your upper let. We are looking at the issue of movability in the raincoat while on the bike. A fitted hood is an idea that we thought would be useful for cyclist since wearing a regular hood as it is blocks your peripherals. Something we think is cool for this type of fashion is hiding the fact that your wearing cycle gear. Like on the rain coat we are thinking of making the reflective material unzip out of the sleeve.

Next we are working on a larger bag. Something that could fit a woman's entire day, or at least most of her needs into this bag. The bag would be a purse that transitioned into a messenger bag. This function is still not completely worked out but we have been playing with a few ideas. Maybe the whole strap for the messenger style comes off and you use the handles of the purse. Or maybe the strap for the messenger looks good both across the chest as it does thrown over your shoulder. Along with this larger bag idea we are thinking of incorporating some type of easy detachable smaller bag, maybe a clutch or a tool kit. This way your essentials are easy accessible for you to do quick choirs with out you having to rummage through the larger bag.

One last idea that we were playing around with was this idea of a shoe cover. Something that would fit around a woman's high heel maybe. The idea seems like a plausible one but we think that the aesthetics of it might not make this work.

After sending these to Emily at Po Campo she seemed to like where our ideas were headed. She expressed interest in our designs. She gave us some good feedback and gave us some good direction. We are going to take the feedback and rework some of these ideas to further our process.

Woman Insight/ Competition/ Observation

2009-09-22T22:06:00.000-07:00

Over the past couple of weeks we have been looking into other companies to see where other companies are at as far as their women's market. Just from the initial look one can already see the shadow that men have in the industry of cycling. Research has shown that men will cycle 3 times more than women. This is a big chunk of people to not offer products to. On the other hand Po Campo's main goal seems to be encouraging women to bike more and more by making it more convenient and stylish. They want to make it empowering to women and this may mean that by not entering the male market, it may make it even more empowering for a woman to ride.

Right now Po Campo only has 2 styles of bags with roughly 3 prints for each. The are sold in 12 different locations in Chicago (Rapid Transit, Smart Bike Parts, and more), 1 in Denver, and 2 in Seattle. (15 total). Emily and Maria and the founders of this Chicago based company, who graduated from the University of Illinois.

- Sustians has launched Bikebelles, a website exclusively for women cyclists. This website is to inform women how to stay safe, get started, and stay in fashion.

- Check out Knog Gekko bike lights.

- Sackville Shop Sack - has a Banana Rep. esque feel to it. They use fabric used for rain and sun protection used in Range Rovers.

- Cyclodelic Messenger Bags - use cordura for their outer fabric

- "I don't dress in cycling gear on my way to work because i don't want people to look me as someone who is a cyclist, because it will turn people away." as in wearing street clothes gives off the impression that anyone can do it.

- DOYOUelo - French website for cycle fashion (men and women). Personally don't think they look very practical

- Swrve - make pants for men and women

- Outlien - make men's pants (Schoeller Dryskin - 80% nylon, 10% poly, and 10 spandex)

The thoughts of a woman cyclist:

-Takes clothes to change into at work.

-Uses backpack to carry her items and sometimes straps the backpack to the back of her bike to prevent back sweat.

-Takes a wash cloth and soap to do a mini bath so that she isn't all sweaty and smelly.

- "Women carry more shit around then men in general. We are going to need more space."

- Things often carried: lunch, clothes, shoes, and "work" for the day.

- Thinks that a tool kit for more serious bikes is a must. Something that could stay with the bike.

- Find a good place to put the bike lock.

- "Just because they are for women doesn't mean they are for all women."

observations and thoughts

2009-09-22T10:39:00.000-07:00

Over the past week we have gone out and have been trying to see how people are riding there bikes while carrying there bags amongst other things. We have observed a great amount of the same type of stuff, home made milk crate and bungee racks, along with bags that are made for the bike and and get the job done and do the job well but could use a little "flare".... So we think we are to a point to start getting a little more inquisitive with cyclist and we have begun coming up with some rough question for a survey. An idea that is in the works with the surveys, is that there will be two different surveys. One will be for the more prominent riders and then the other will be more for the casual rider. In the surveys we will be trying to find out what people are looking for in there bike accessories and trying to find out what has worked for them in the past and what has maybe failed. Then with all the information that has been collected we can start to visualize products and start roughing out some models.

2009-09-12T17:52:00.000-07:00

Some competition and some related blog links.... i don't know if this is a good or bad idea but what I'm thinking is if we look at bikes and regular apparel for bikes and the riders first. We can then start to think about the fashion because we need to know why cyclist wear what they wear and then we can design around those stipulation and make some nice fashion able products.... Side note bags are one ave. on this project i think there are a lot more options in accessories and maybe rain gear, or even helmets.
londoncyclechic.blogspot.com/2009/06/another-addition-to-womens-cycling.html
www.rivbike.com
www.cyclodelic.co.uk/
www.eurobike-show.de/eb/supporting-programme/eurobike-fashion-show.php?lg=en