Kathmandu – Terrane Adapt Pack
The Australian Business Award for New Product Innovation recognises new products and services that provide innovative solutions for new and existing market needs.
“We are delighted to be recognised as an ABA100 Winner in the New Product Innovation category, for our patent pending Terrane Adapt Travel Pack. Kathmandu’s most versatile design yet. As passionate travellers ourselves, finding solutions to challenges people face when roaming the world is immensely rewarding. We set ourselves the goal to change the way people carry, roll, or haul their belongings when on the road. Through our design process, we utilised cutting edge 3D print prototyping combined with old-school “garage-tinkering.” Our end result was the Terrane Adapt Pack, with a uniquely engineered patent pending adaptive wheel-set design. Our design allows rapid transition from backpack to trolley bag. The pack is highly specked, with the superior long distance carrying comfort of our C3 Adapt harness, so it can travel anywhere in the world you’d like to go.”
A pack with wheels was Kathmandu’s first idea. They researched the Aspirational achiever market and assessed their needs, but the research confirmed their belief that their competitors were simply reiterating a trolley bag with a harness as secondary function. There was nothing in the market that suited Kathmandu’s core target market’s needs. On the initial designs the team conducted risk assessments using the FMEA technique. This helped to identify potential failure modes, effects and causes that would prevent the design from meeting all objectives.
Any risks were assessed and reviewed, allowing the company to mitigate possible hazards. Test plans were also put in place early in the process to assess product safety and performance of the Terrane Adapt pack. The product was also passed to a cross section of travellers to use in different environments. This gave Kathmandu an understanding and feedback of real life situations and allowed them to monitor how the product performed, and make any improvements along the way.
The final product includes features such as a C3 Adapt harness for long distance comfort, a patent-pending adaptive wheel-set design, a luggage-style opening, a fold-away harness cover for airport check-in, lockable zipper docking points, a side carry handle and a weight of only 4.2kg. The Terrane Adapt Pack is also available in womensFIT harness which is designed for a woman’s specific fit.
Kathmandu is being recognised for a New Product Innovation award in the Australian Business Awards 2016 for this product.