1. The Nutshell: In plain language, tell us what your project is, what it does, and what it’s comprised of.

The Gig Pack is a scooter backpack for the daily use, Its portability allows it to be used whenever needed. Unlike conventional folding bikes and scooters it can be carried on the back, allowing the user to have both hands free. This also makes it more convenient when getting on the bus or a subway train. Perfect for college students, people who live in big cities and users of public transportation. A great way to avoid traffic and a greener way to move.

2. The Brief: Summarize the problem you set out to solve. What was the context for the project, and what was the challenge posed to you?

The idea was to create an alternative transportation for the daily use that it was truly portable. Currently the ”portable” transports as the folding bicycles works great as transportation, but its portability is not that good, what’s so great about a folding bike and having a big heavy load on your hand? The biggest challenge was to create something different from what already exists that was practical and worked well in both situations as a backpack and as a scooter. There are already luggage’s with a scooter attached to it, but they all have very small and fragile wheels that can only roll on flat and smooth floors like the ones found in a airport and they don’t have shoulder straps so they can’t be carried on your back as a backpack. Also most of these bags don’t have a good drive-ability because their design consists of two front wheels and a rear one, a fact that makes them quite uncomfortable to ride and awkward to control.

3. The Intent: What point of view did you bring to the project, and were there additional criteria that you added to the brief?

After pointing out the above problems it was seen that the product, had to be on a backpack shape, have two wheels for a comfortable dive-ability and no frame parts could be on the way then storing something inside. Things that were added during creation process was using the structure to protect the objects inside, what was achieved by designing of the curved aluminium part, using this approach also left more room to store things inside, also this curved aluminium part witch has the style of a gig ( a light, two-wheeled one-horse carriage ) was the inspiration for the name and shape of it. Other major challenge was how to embed the scooter inside the backpack without occupying the whole free space to store things, so it was chosen to embed only the rear and the base, which folds up inside a partition behind the back of the backpack, this part is closed by a zipper that can be open whenever you want to use the scooter.

4. The Process: Describe the rigor that informed your project. (Research, ethnography, subject matter experts, materials exploration, technology, iteration, testing, etc., as applicable.) What stakeholder interests did you consider? (Audience, business, organization, labor, manufacturing, distribution, etc., as applicable)

The structural material ( aluminium ) was chosen because it’s lightweight and cheap price, carbon fiber was definitely a choice but that would make the costs really high and the idea of having a popular and accessible product would be blown away. The fabric of the backpack is Nylon because it have a good resistance to the daily use, its also relatively cheap, its impermeable and also its widely used along backpack manufacturers. To keep the weight as low as possible structural studies were made and weight savings cut outs where made on areas that would not affect the rigidity of the product. Manufacturers of bicycles can easily produce this product once all of the production process are the same as when making a bike. The textile part can easily be send out to be manufacturer in another facility considering there is nothing different like a regular backpack on it. Also many bicycle brands already have textile products like gloves, safety equipment and hydro packs.

5. The Value: How does your project earn its keep in the world? What is its value? What is its impact? (Social, educational, economic, paradigm-shifting, sustainable, environmental, cultural, gladdening, etc.)