Barebag Series Fashionable Prosthetics by Ke Zheng and Shuhao Xuanyuan is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2024 Silver A' Design Award in Fashion and Travel Accessories Design Competition Category.
SilverAccessory· 2024
Barebag Series Fashionable Prosthetics
by Ke Zheng and Shuhao Xuanyuan
Client: BareBag
Silver A' Design Award Winner in Accessory Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #160037The Design
About Barebag Series Fashionable Prosthetics
BareBag is a series of wearable accessories for people with limited use of their arms or hands, like those who've had an injury or amputation. BareBag's innovatively engineered anti-swing hook imperceptibly integrates into a fashion accessory, allowing users to hang any bag right at their waist without using their hands. Its ButterSlide technology also enables users to adjust the strap with just one hand effortlessly. BareBag is designed to make life easier for anyone who needs their hands free, offering a smart way to boost independence and improve the quality of life for its users.
The Recognition
About the Silver A' Design Award
Barebag Series Fashionable Prosthetics is a Silver A' Design Award winner, an extraordinarily prestigious recognition granted to top-of-the-line, gorgeous, and impressive designs. Silver winners are tremendously brilliant and exceedingly creative works that illustrate the outstanding expertise, talent, and acuity of their designers. Barebag Series Fashionable Prosthetics is expected to be a wonderful, showpiece work that is remarkably professional and profoundly innovative. This Silver A' Design Award-winning design is a highly notable, admired invention that benefits and advances the boundaries of art, science, design, and technology. Barebag Series Fashionable Prosthetics is a vastly envied creation that evokes desires, introduces positive feelings, and sparks amazement and wonderment.
Where to Get It
Adaptive Fashion Accessories for Independent Living
We create stylish wearable accessories that empower people with limited mobility to carry bags hands-free. Our award-winning designs blend seamlessly into everyday fashion while providing practical solutions for independence. Sustainable materials, thoughtful engineering, universal appeal.
Shop NowInterviews
Grand Interview
Your innovative approach to integrating prosthetic functionality with fashion in the Barebag Series Fashionable Prosthetics challenges traditional medical device aesthetics - could you elaborate on how your personal experience with injury shaped this revolutionary design concept?
A bike accident that broke my arm, forced me to experience a life with only one functional hand. I found myself often having trouble carrying items while doing tasks, such as grabbing a coffee, opening doors, and make phone calls. So I wanted to design a wearable carrier that can help free my hands. Through months of research and test, me and my partner designed an elegant way to integrate an open hook system into wearable fashion.
The Barebag Series Fashionable Prosthetics features an anti-swing hook mechanism that seamlessly blends into its fashionable exterior - what were the key engineering challenges in developing this stability system while maintaining the aesthetic appeal?
The key engineering challenge is to test endlessly to find out the most appropriate size and materials that are not only securely grab the most bags and umbrellas, but also appeals proportionately decent for urban fashion. we want the hook mechanism to almost disappear and become one with the body.
How did your extensive user testing phase with over 50 prototypes of the Barebag Series Fashionable Prosthetics lead to specific refinements in the ButterSlide technology, particularly in achieving effortless one-handed operation?
ButterSlide is the very first feature we want to achieve in the development of BareBag. Among the dozens of slider we bought on the market, we found it’s very difficult to achieve one-hand strap-adjustment while having a very clean and minimal form factor. The closest one might be the buckle commonly used on the bottom of backpack straps, but it still sacrifices visual simplicity, having a fairly long strap dripping down in the air. We tried buttons, magnets, springs, but eventually we took inspiration from the infamous butterfly mechanism keyboard, to design a foldable slider that looks just like another normal slider.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- BareBag represents a universal, integrated solution for limited mobility and functionality for the millions of upper limb injured/amputees, who often struggle to carry their belongings and perform daily tasks with one hand. With versatile bag hooks integrated into cross-body fashion accessories, users can comfortably carry all types of bags at their waist hands-free. By solving a universal problem of busy hands, BareBag promotes social equity and improves the life quality for its users.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- BareBag: 135mm x 50mm x 90mm
BareBag Nano: 120mm x 12mm x 70mm - Tags
- Bag, Prosthetic, Fashion, Lifestyle, Assistive, Wallet, Amputee, Inclusive, Adaptive
- Production Technology
- BareBag is modularly assembled with a soft leather exterior and hard 3D-printed recycled PLA hook prosthetics. The modularity allows quick adaptation to configuration, and separate cleaning and recycling at the end of its life cycle. Its sustainable rPET strap is equipped with a 3D-printed slider specially engineered to enable smooth adjustment with one hand.
- Design Challenge
- The two main challenges during BareBag's development are maintaining the balance and stability of both BareBag and the carried bags, and inventing a strap slider mechanism for smooth one-hand adjustment. The wide-body hooks minimize bag-swinging or escaping while allowing the bag to slide in easily. BareBag's slider is re-engineered with a butterfly locking mechanism that allows the user to unlock with a simple pull, effortlessly adjust with one hand, and lock with a simple pinch. We iterated more than 50 prototypes to perfect the user experience.
- Research
- BareBag is a novel integration that differentiates itself from both fashion accessories and prosthetics. The research for active annual demand from disabled users resulted in more than 3.77 million people in the US alone. BareBag's development went through a 6-month user testing phase with more than 50 prototypes, optimizing the reliability, stability, ease of use, aesthetics, and sustainability.
- Inspiration
- BareBag started with a bike accident that broke one of its founder's arms. This sudden shift in life quality made him realize how inconvenient it is to do everything with only one hand. Especially when doing dumb labor like carrying bags, he had no hands to even use a phone. However, all the bag carriers on the market are bulky and make the user's disability more visible. BareBag's mission is then set to be an everyday fashion accessory that imperceptively becomes the user's additional hand.
- Project Duration
- BareBag started in January 2023 in New York City and finished in December 2023 in New York City
- Operation Flow
- By putting BareBag on like a cross-body bag, it blends into your style while being a prosthetic. With only one hand, unlock the strap slider by folding it up, and effortlessly slide it to adjust the strap length to fit your body. When you have bags to carry, simply hook the bag onto the integrated hook and let it grab the bags for you at waist level comfortably and stably, so your hands can be free to do more.
- Team Members
- Designer: Ke Zheng
Designer: Shuhao Xuanyuan
Manufacturing Specialist: Danmin Rao
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