Press Release
Thermaltrex Sleeping Bag by Tony and Lisa Clark Receives the Silver A' Design Award in Outdoor Gear and Camping Equipment Design
The international grand jury of the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition recognizes Tony and Lisa Clark for outdoor gear and camping equipment design
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 18, 2025 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has announced that Thermaltrex Sleeping Bag by Tony and Lisa Clark, designed for Seasonfort, has been granted the Silver A' Design Award in the Outdoor Gear and Camping Equipment Design category. The award was conferred within the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition and was reached through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who evaluated anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
The Silver A' Design Award Explained
The Silver A' Design Award celebrates top-tier designs that embody excellence and innovation. This award acknowledges creations that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also highly functional, reflecting the designer's deep understanding and skill. Silver A' Design Award recipients are recognized for their contribution to raising industry standards and advancing the practice of design. Their work often incorporates original innovations and elicits a strong emotional response, making a notable impact on the improvement of everyday life.
About Thermaltrex Sleeping Bag
Thermaltrex is a fire retardant sleeping bag designed for camping and outdoor use. The sleeping bag is made from a 330gsm polar fleece textile that is permanently fire retardant, without chemical treatments or coatings. The fabric is machine washable, recyclable, colourfast and mildew resistant, and it also offers sun protection. Two units can be joined with reversible zips to form a double sleeping bag, and the foot end can be opened so the bag can be worn while walking. Storage is provided in a six litre dry bag with two handles.
About Tony and Lisa Clark
Aiming to change nations of street sleeping homeless people - with designs that are safe and dignified.
Award Record
With this recognition, Tony and Lisa Clark is a winner of 1 A' Design Award.
About the A' Camping Gear and Outdoor Equipment Design Award
The A' Camping Gear Design Award is an international industrial design competition recognizing good camping equipment by leading brands and designers worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to camping gear designers, outdoor equipment designers, product designers and industrial design studios from all countries. Entries typically include tents, sleeping bags, backpacks, camping stoves, lanterns and multi-tools. Awarded camping gear designs are published at https://designers.org/design-category/camping-gear
About A' Design Award & Competition
A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission to advance society through good design by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, the upload of a work and the preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://designers.org/146484
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/146484
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!146484
- Laureate Profile: https://designers.org/d/339279
- Further Information from the Laureate: https://seasonfort.com/au
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Thermaltrex Sleeping Bag
- Function
- Sleeping Bag
- Category
- Outdoor Gear and Camping Equipment Design
- Discipline
- Industrial Design
- Industry
- Sports
- Colors
- Black, Silver, Slate Gray, Light Gray and Dark Gray
- Images
- 5
- Client
- Seasonfort
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Tony and Lisa Clark
- Country
- Australia
- Recognition
- Silver A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2024 - 2025
- Design ID
- #146484
Credits
- Team
- Tony Clark, Tony Clark and Lisa Clark, Founders of not for profit social enterprise Seasonfort and Thermaltrex: Tony and Lisa Clark and Founder of homeless not for profit charity - Backpack Bed for Homeless: Tony Clark
- Image Credits
- Seasonfort video and photos in-house.
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- Our new Seasonfort Sleeping Bag is permanently Fire Retardant with no chemical treatments or coatings. To do this we designed Thermaltrex, a warm 330gsm polar fleece machine washable recyclable fabric; which meets both the Faa 4 ply Airline Blanket and en71 2 Child Safety fire standards. Natural chemical safety allows it to pass the worlds toughest European chemical safety standard Reach, and is without formaldehyde or azoic dyes. It is colourfast, mildew resistant and offers upf50 sun protection.
- Inspiration
- Street sleeping homeless need a fire retardant sleeping bag that could be washed. Fire kills and injures. All campsites and outdoor fires often spit fire. Today, sleeping bags are made of a polyester, nylon shell; which can easily ignite, spread fast and melt on the skin. Sleeping bags are rarely washed, any sleeping bag that claims to be washable is usually damaged while washing; filling is damaged, clumps, creating uneven warmth and cold spots.
- Research
- To reduce final production costs the material needed to be both synthetic and recyclable. This logically narrowed down the fibres and yarns that could be used. Next was to combine different materials and yarns at various ratios; which required a trial and error approach. After each trial and error, materials would be tested in-house in various ways. Tests was grouped into 4 sets; fire, chemical, material and product. Upon success, all production would be tested at an independent lab test.
- Challenge
- Tony Clark initially was searching for a low cost way to make fire retardant sleeping bags for homeless people sleeping on the street. For safety the fabric should not use chemicals. The fabric must self extinguish a 1 inch flame for 12 seconds. It must not use price prohibitive yarns or fibres e.g. Kevlar. The fabric must be affordable for mass market safety.
- Realization and Technology
- Our not for profit social enterprise Seasonfort, founded by Tony & Lisa Clark, was created to help fund our life-saving Thermaltrex fire retardant polar fleece sleeping bags for homeless; 19,500 distributed to date. To create our vision of safety - without any fire retardant chemicals - we made our new textile Thermaltrex to ensure every fibre was fire retardant, machine washable and recyclable. Thermaltrex fabric is recyclable; shredded, de-polymerised, then repolymered again e.g. into PET plastic bottles or industrial plastic products. In comparison to traditional polar fleece the cost difference is approximately 30 percent. A breakthrough for safety.
- Operation and Interaction
- Users of the Seasonfort Fire Retardant Sleeping Bag enjoy multiple functions. Two units can be joined together to make a double sleeping bag. The Ykk reversible rail zips also allows users to open the foot end of the sleeping bag and walk around wherever they are; cozy and warm. Instead of a typical drawstring stow bag, the Seasonfort Sleeping Bag is stored in a 6L dry bag with two handles. An additional functional dry bag is handy when camping. The sleeping bag does not need to be carefully rolled to be re-packed into the dry bag; instead it can be stuffed back in quickly without hassle.
- Project Duration and Location
- Product and fabric designer Tony Clark took 3 years to research, design and verify that Thermaltrex results could be repeated. Thermaltrex polar fleece could not be made in Australia. Tony spent much time overseas. After much trial and error samples were made with various different textile mills; success finally happened. Before independent test labs, major product testing occurred in Australia in-house lab. With this knowledge, Tony could then apply theories into reality and final repeated success.
- Specifications
- 1kg rectangle sleeping bag is 190 x 79cm. Make a double size 190 x 159cm by zipping together 2 units. Silver reflective ropes to see in low light and pull Ykk reversible zips. Users can unzip the footend and walk around in warmth. Black nylon trim at head-end complements two woven labels, Seasonfort and ThermalTrex brands. Alongside is a green and blue ribbon denoting profits from sales assist Tony and Lisa Clark's homeless charity, Backpack Bed for Homeless. En13537 Sleeping Bag Celsius ratings, Extreme at 1C, Comfort at 15C. Stowed in multi-use 6L dry bag, one handle each end, digital logo print.
- Keywords
- sleeping bag, fire, safety, fire retardant, Seasonfort, camping, textiles
