Students wow outdoor gear pros with innovative backpack prototypes

One backpack included a pepper-spray holder. Another featured a way to lock a bike helmet to it and reflective tape for nighttime safety. Still another contained padding on the back to allow air flow and reduce back sweat. And one included compression straps that can be tightened so the whole thing shrinks to the size of a small purse.

One by one on a recent Monday morning, David Klein’s Industrial Design students showed off backpack prototypes, the 3D models they were created from and the market research that went into the designs. The Metropolitan State University of Denver students weren’t just hoping for good grades. The assignment gave them an opportunity to stretch their creative legs and experience the real world of outdoor-gear design by having their ideas and work critiqued by Osprey Packs Inc. designers Scott Butterworth and Michael Meyer.

“We were really impressed,” said Butterworth, an MSU Denver alumnus. “These may be beginning design students, but they really pushed the creativity.”

For Klein’s 16 students, the assignment and presentation were an exceptional opportunity “to experience how things work in the profession,” Klein said.

For Butterworth and Cortez-based Osprey, the collaboration was more than a chance to reconnect with his alma mater and a respected teacher. “We saw this as an opportunity to be ambassadors of the outdoor industry and let them know … if you have skills and talent and are passionate about design like we are, you can join this industry,” he said.

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Assigned to research markets in the United States, Europe or Asia and design new backpack prototypes specific to each market, Klein’s design students outdid themselves with innovative features, smart-looking styles and impressive 3D models.

Fiona Landau called on her cousin in Finland to help her research the Scandinavian market and came up with a nylon bag that was lightweight for commuters and cyclists and water resistant for the wetter climate. The pack she produced was a deep blue and a little smaller than she expected. “It kind of shrank” between the design and execution, she said.

Products of largely post-home-ec high schools, several of the students said stitching their products together was more challenging than the design itself.

“I finished at 1 a.m. this morning” after an “obnoxiously long” total of 80 hours of sewing, a sleepy-looking Marisa Rice informed her audience as she showed off a sturdy canvas bag with a brass zipper and extra cushioning.

Despite their protests, Butterworth told the students he was impressed with their stitching. “After 10 years in the industry, I’m still terrible at sewing.”

But three of the students will get to see the results when Osprey professionals to produce a production-quality prototype of their designs. So, when those three graduate, they’ll not only have the experience of presenting a design to a real-world manufacturer, they’ll have the actual, professionally made product to show, Butterworth said.

In all, the collaboration was a great experience, he said. “We’d love to do it again,”

Learn more about Industrial Design programs at MSU Denver.