coLAB

Gourdon for commuting?

2008-11-04T16:55:42+00:00

Hope this is the right place to post this.
I dont own a Gourdon at the moment but was considering buying one to use a commuting sack over the winter.
When riding in the rain I use a waterproof cover for my sack which almost cost as much as a Gourdon, but the main reason I wont currently change, is my sack cover has reflective bands on it.
Any thoughts about including these, or creating another ‘commute’ version in the future?
thanks for the continual innovation =)
John

Ideas that probably won’t make it into production ::o)

2008-11-28T11:12:54+00:00

How about . . .

Dehydrated water. Save weight on long summer walks, just add water to rehydrate.

The invisible tent . . . ideal for low-impact wild camping, and great for getting out of paying campsite fees!

Self-extracting friends - save leaving expensive kit when your second can’t get it out, just have friends that come out when you pull!

Anyone got any more?

PooterPod

2008-11-25T22:47:44+00:00

Hi it’s gone a little quiet around here about the pooter Bag and i was wondering how everyone was getting on with theirs?

I’ve used mine for Hiking, Mountain Biking, Commuting and Carrying my stuff for Wall Murals, it’s been on many adventure all around the UK but alas it has come to a sad demise at the hands of the supermarket this morning, the main zip has well and truely given up the ghost and busted. It’s had an adventurous life, but not a long one and i hope the next incarnation is tougher and has bigger storage.
How has your Pooter been?

Live chat on Outdoors Magic

2008-11-12T09:25:50+00:00

Nick will be chatting about coLAB09 during a live chat session hosted by Outdoors Magic. It is a chance to ask questions about the award format and how to get the most out of it. The guys at OM will open the chat board from 1pm.

Date: 13th November
Time: 1pm
Location: Outdoors Magic Forum

Who can i go to advice?

2008-09-24T07:50:32+00:00

If you pick up the yellow pages, or google “patent attorney” and they will be sure to help you all the way to the cash machine.

There are alternatives, many practices offer a free session which is worth taking them up on. Be sure to prepare well for this as there is no point starting the whole protection process without knowing where you are going to end up, and how much it will cost.

Recently there has been a number of agencies which are giving sound advice on intellectual property, such as.

http://www.creativeinsightuk.com/

http://www.own-it.org/

Although there is a plethora of information on the web, this isnt going to a substitute to sitting in front of someone and getting worldly wise advice from someone that has seen it all before.

Cheers

Nick

Thoughts from Julie Greengrass - Sprayway

2008-10-24T10:38:00+00:00

I’m the Senior Designer at Sprayway, but I’m not a mountaineer and I wasn’t taken out walking in the mountains from a young age, in fact quite the opposite considering I was bought up in one of the flattest parts of the country - Essex! there got that out of the way. The most I did was to go walking in the New Forest on our summer holidays til the age of 10. I’ve arrived where I am from a more creative angle, and the sports that I’ve experience or still do regularly - mountainbiking, running, hill walking, powerkiting, climbing etc all got picked up along the way and I wouldn’t be without them now as using the kit that I design is the easiest way to find new ideas, or find faults with current ones.

I’ve always had an interest in making things, my nan was a seamstress, and most of my clothes as a child were hand made by my nans or my mum, so making clothes is something that I’ve been capable of from quite a young age. I didn’t really think about it as a career until the final year of A levels and realised that to get to a Fashion degree, I needed to do a Foundation course in Art and Design first. This covered everything from Graphics, 3D, Fine Art, Textiles and Fashion to Photography and Art History. I managed to get a place at Newcastle Poly for a 4 year BA(hons) in Fashion Design. This taught me the basics of creating garment patterns, fabrics, finishing, garment construction and textiles. After several work placements during my 3rd year on the course, I was a bit disillusioned with the fashion world and had become interested in fabrics that had some kind of performance characteristics. This lead me to finding out about the Masters in Performance Sportswear Design at Derby Uni. It was only in it’s 2nd year when I started, so was very new to the sportwear industry too. This course took me onto the next level teaching me more in depth about fabrics - their make up and how and why they work, cutting patterns for movement, market research etc I did some work placements whilst on the course too - working for a licensee of Rockport in Stockholm, then for Polaris, then Rox and Design IQ (as they’re now called).

I learnt a lot from the course, but it was still a struggle to find a job in the trade, it took me about 5 months before I started my first proper job. I sent out CV’s to everyone that I wanted to work for and applied to the jobs that I could find. Then I got a phone call from Nick Brown at Paramo, and I was given the opportunity to put all that I’d learnt into practise. It was a steep learning curve, and I made a lot of mistakes, but I enjoyed working there and learnt so much. I then headed North to Montane, and stayed for 6 years. The company changed a lot whilst I was there. I had, what I would class as the luxury of having a factory on site. I could design a product in the morning, make the pattern and then be sitting with the sample machinist in the afternoon as she made it up - telling me what would and wouldn’t work in production. We then started to move production to the Far East as we couldn’t keep up with demand and prices in the UK. The factory in the UK had teams of 4 working on garments, yet in China there were different people for for pretty much every operation. So each person at each stage was an expert in what they did - putting in zips, finishing pockets, hem drawcord tunnels etc Our girls in the UK couldn’t compete on the finishing quality, though not without trying. We eventually closed the factory and moved all the rest of our production to China. It was a sad day. My role at Montane was varied as it was a small company. I designed and developed new products, sourced fabric and trim, chose the colours and organised lab dips, co-ordinated the sampling - working with the factories and fabric suppliers, signed off the preproduction samples, liased with fabric companies for bulk fabric ordering, QC’d the products when the bulk orders arrived in the uk, organised rectification if they were wrong, did the drawings for the workbook, sent products out to Journalists etc etc I enjoyed my 6 years at Montane, but really wanted to be more focussed on design and be less involved in the other stuff. Which is why I then moved to Sprayway.

Sprayway is a bigger company, and I am in charge of a small team of product developers, fabric technician and designer. I have to research the market, the competition, the customer, colour, fabric, detail, trends as well as staying on top of technical developments, then I design and specify my products to send out to the factory and then feedback on the prototypes. I am also involved in writing text for our workbooks, trying to keep costs down, and working with our distributors abroad to create specific styles for them. There are a long list of other things including regular trips to the factories and admin stuff that I do which is all part and parcel of my job.

Working with factories abroad is different. Lead times are longer, and you have less direct contact with the people developing your products, however they do have access to more machinery and new technology that would have been too expensive to buy for our factory in the UK at Montane. Ultimately, we specify what they make, and control the quality from the UK. Sometimes developing something a little tricky is more difficult and takes longer but if there is a difficult detail we will mock it up in the Uk and then send it over for the factory to copy.

Designing outdoor kit is like trying to find an unending solution to a problem, which from my point of view is great as I like the challenge of it. It’s quite rewarding when you see your products being worn, or reviewed or being bought every season by more and more stores. Not sure if there’s anything else that I’d rather be doing careerwise: I’m being creative, designing clothing, and getting out and testing it. It’s a job I enjoy doing and if I didn’t enjoy it I wouldn’t be doing it.

More info here

Thoughts from Oliver Nissen - Equip, Rab, outdoordesigns and Pod

2008-10-24T10:34:06+00:00

From my 1 year’s experience in industry I’ve drafted a few basic
“truths” about design:

Design values enthusiasm and creativity, but needs an equal measure of
discipline and organisation too.

It is a field that needs those who can see the big picture while not
neglecting the fine detail.

Like genius 1% of a design is inspiration and 99% is perspiration.

To sum it up… open your eyes, be inspired, hold an opinion (but don’t
be opinionated), network widely, get proficient at CAD programs, have a
portfolio, and most of all persevere.

On a more industry specific note, I can say I got the best view of both
the bigger and smaller picture of the Outdoor Industry by visiting the
big trade shows - Winter ISPO and Outdoor Friedrichshafen. When you’re
there don’t waste time trying to talk with the marketing people - ask to
book 10mins to speak with the designers - generally we’re the nicest and
most approachable people at the shows

I hope that helps.

Regards,

Oliver Nissen

See more information here

Thoughts from Keith Hutcheon - Mountain Equipment

2008-10-24T10:30:32+00:00

How I got into the Industry
I personally think we are only here to produce a better version of ourselves and die. Luckily humans get bored easily and we have invented a whole manner of great activities such as mountaineering, climbing, hill walking, skiing, fell running, and mountain biking, to fill in time between sex and certain death.

I am the Designer for Mountain Equipment. This may seem odd, but I have never liked being called a designer. I probably have a severe personality disorder but I just don’t think it describes what I do very well. As I get older I find myself out for dinner with people I don’t know and everyone is telling each other about how wonderful it is to be married, having kids, and discussing how they want to eat happier chickens. They go through the basic list of questions they all ask each other in these situations and finally it comes, “so Keith, what do you do for a living?” Over the years I have honed the answer to simply, “I design Gore-Tex® jackets”. It is descriptive enough for non-outdoor people to understand and just enough for anyone with an interest in the outdoors to want to speak to me more.

Thankfully the job I have is a bit more varied than just designing jackets. We don’t have a design department, a sourcing department, a team of people to organise fabric testing, etc. All these jobs are, for the most part, my responsibility. I work closely with the Product Manager and a small team of Garment Technologists to design and develop a range of outdoor clothing and equipment every season.

Nature or Nurture
Biological determinism: where biological factors such as an organism’s individual genes (as opposed to social or environmental factors) completely determine how a system behaves or changes over time.

When I look back at how I got to where I am today I have to question was it a case of Nature or Nurture? My dad is a Design and Technology teacher with a passion for the outdoors and my mum is a dressmaker. I like to think it is partly genetic but I have memories of my dad designing fleece jackets and one-man backpacking tents when I was a kid. My mum would then make them up for him on a Saturday morning. I knew from a young age the only thing I wanted to do was design product for the outdoors.

I started out on a BSc in Industrial Design course based in Aberdeen. The course had an engineering and marketing element alongside design theory and practice. It recognised the need for more rounded designers…ones who could do more than just make a product look great. I kept my focus on the outdoors throughout the course and by the time I had finished 4th year I had designed some interesting products including a semi-inflatable kayak and carbon fibre shafted ice axes.

Work
A chance meeting with a windsurfing Automotive Design Manager at the New Designers Exhibition in London left me with a business card and ultimately with a job as a Design Engineer. It wasn’t long before I had become proficient on the CAD package, gained an understanding of injection moulding, tooling, and all things automotive. It wasn’t my planned choice of career but I was designing parts for the £300,000 Mercedes McLaren SLR, which kept me interested for a while. I found myself back on track when I was offered a job as a Project Designer working for a leading Cold Water Immersions Suit manufacturer. It was a chance to gain knowledge of technical textiles and human physiology, which was much more up my street. I spent my time researching new technologies to heat and cool the body. This meant afternoons in a swimming pool with the helicopter crash simulator, floating in a tank of cold water for up to three hours, or doing step ups in a climatic chamber all while wearing Gore-Tex suits and a rectal thermometer. Redundancies eventually hit the oil industry and I was out of a job.

Over the next couple of months I contacted quite a few outdoor brands and I applied to jobs that looked interesting. I got one interview in total and they ultimately did not want to take a chance on me…what did I have to do? Well, I had recently heard of a more direct way into the outdoor industry. The University of Derby had a one year full-time MA in Performance Sportswear Design course, which seemed to have a very high success rate in placing students with employers. This was a big investment for me financially. £15k to be exact by the time I had finished not including the loss of potential wages for the year. I went back into the automotive industry while I waited for the course to start and saved as much as I could.

Re-training
The course at Derby was split into three stages:

Stage 1 (Postgraduate Certificate): Postgraduate skills
- 4 Months long Identification of end-user requirements
Fibre and material studies
Garment technology

Stage 2 (Postgraduate Diploma): Practical design project development
- 5 Months long Project development, management, and launch
Portfolio development and presentation

Stage 3 (Master of Arts): Independent studies for performance sportswear design
- On placement if possible

Having already completed a design degree and with experience working as a designer, the majority of this stuff was pretty straightforward. However, I wasn’t on the course to pass, I was on the course to get a great job so I worked huge hours over the first nine months. The course was purely a means to an end for me. It wasn’t particularly well organised, but in-between all the problems there were some great lecturers who really knew their stuff. Fundamentally the course allowed me the time and space to develop my skill set from one product area to another. It will not suddenly make you a good designer.

Back to Work
I started the course in January and by October of the same year I had finished stage 2. Two weeks later I had my first interview and two weeks after than I had another four, one of which was Mountain Equipment. The interview lasted three hours most of which were spent chatting about which mountains I had been up, where I had been skiing or cycling, and how far could I run.

That was four years ago.

What i have learnt

1. There are plenty of jobs for good designers. You just have to spend time and effort accumulating the right skills, knowledge, and experience for employers to be interested. This will normally mean a design related degree (fashion, product, etc) combined with knowledge and experience of outdoor activities

2. I think there are two basic types of designers: Ones who design by inspiration and ones who design by perspiration. You are lucky if you are in the first camp. The majority have to work hard to generate enough ideas for a whole season

3. You won’t necessarily be designing product you would use or even like, so learn to listen to the people that will

4 In my opinion, designing the most commercial £60 waterproof jacket is much harder than designing the ‘best’ £300 waterproof jacket. You can learn something from product at every price point

5. Do not specialise too early if you don’t want to and don’t worry if your path is not going in a straight line. I am better at what I do because of the convoluted path I took

6. If you really want a job with an outdoor company just phone them up and ask to speak to the Design Manager. Posting a random CV will probably go nowhere.

See more information here

Thoughts from Helen Roberts - Equip, Rab, Pod and Outdoor designs.

2008-10-24T09:54:32+00:00

“My route into design for the outdoors hasn’t exactly been direct but that seems to be the standard as most of the designers I know seem to have had a unique route to their current positions, working in other industries or with other backgrounds before ending up designing.

I studied Fine Art at university but by the time I left I knew I didn’t want to be an artist and took a job in an outdoors shop for a year while I saved up to go travelling. That’s where my education in the outdoors and the industry began.
I found out about the MA Performance Sportswear Design course at Derby University through a former colleague who was on the course 1 year ahead of me and applied once I was back in the UK. The course taught us aspects of design, pattern cutting, marketing and CAD skills. I did my Masters placement at Rab and have been with them since I completed it.

For me working as a designer now the most important things on the course were the pattern cutting (to gain an understanding of garment construction) and CAD skills. We use computer packages, mostly Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop on a daily basis and getting to know them inside outside out is a real advantage. For me the combination of these design skills, an enthusiasm for the outdoors plus having worked in an outdoors shop and understanding how consumers make purchasing decisions were invaluable.
In my opinion anyone looking for a uni course to get into design for the outdoors currently should consider one of the 2 undergraduate courses available, the Sports Equipment Design - BSc (Hons) at Salford and the new BA (Hons) Performance Sportswear Design at Falmouth, of which I don’t know much about, but looks promising on paper. If you want a more scientific/ textiles approach then consider the BSc in Sports Studies (Outdoor Activities) course at Leeds.

If you’re looking for a postgraduate course then there are more options, though most of them being more textiles rather than garment oriented. There are postgraduate textiles courses with good reputations at Heriott Watt, Leeds and Manchester and I have recently been told there is a course at Otago University, New Zealand.“

Blogs - A good source of independent views on outdoor kit

2008-09-11T15:42:34+00:00

We started alpkit, as we didnt like how things where being done. This had mostly to do with the fact that we had stopped listening to users and started listening to reps and what the buyers had to say. Ultimately this meant that the design of the product would stray away from what the customer would actually want. In the last couple of years it has been noticeable how much information is being published about gear in various blogs. This can only be a good thing

http://whitespider1066.com/?cat=449
Nice site, glad to know he has a mac now.

http://www.northernwalker.com/
Doesnt appear to use any of our gear though.

http://lighthiker.wordpress.com/
Loads of stuff on DIY gear, and thinking outside the box.

http://loveinatent.blogspot.com/search/label/Gear
Author of - Sex in a tent

http://londonbackpackers.blogspot.com/
Not much about gear but he does mention our comp

http://summitandvalley.blogspot.com/
New on the blogging scene (i think) some good stuff to come. Says nothing bad about our poles.....honest.

http://www.petesy.co.uk/?s=alpkit
If only we had thought to call the company Cleverest

http://aktoman.blogspot.com/2008/08/akto-ii.html
Some useful stuff with video as well

http://drw.me.uk/RedYeti/category/kit/custom-kit/
He seems to have a home made sewing kit just like mine

http://walkaboutuk.blogspot.com/2006/03/faq-backpacking-advice.html
Lots of advice on this one

http://www.outdoorbloggers.com
Loads more here