Recycled Climbing Rope Bag
I always felt wasteful knowing that climbing ropes often end up in landfills after they are too worn to be considered safe. With this in mind, I set out to design a bag using the durable rope sheathing to create a rugged bag once again worthy of rough outdoor use.
Problem
Ropes need to have maximum strength in order to protect the climbers using them. To protect against falling off of mountains, ropes must be retired after a certain amount of use. This is unfortunate as it is a large source of wasted material. These heavy duty ropes are a great source of material that are not recycled as much as they could be.
Mood Board
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Ideation
Prototyping I
For my low fidelity prototype I used a very lightweight and stretchy fiber. Admittedly this was not the best idea as it shares very little with the actual fabric I am planning to use. However, it was what was available and it gave me confidence that the pattern was viable. It also helped me see areas in need of clarification.
I decided that this backpack only needed clarification in the strap attachment area. This is because I wanted to fix how it sat on the model in my next prototype.
Revision
High Fidelity Prototype
Core separated from the sheathing of climbing rope.
Pile of rope sheaths ready to be sewn
Close up sewing ropes together
Rope textile ready to be used in production
Due to both industrial sewing machines being out of commission I could not complete this prototype. I made some computer designs to hold it's place in the mean time, but intend to finish this and use it as my school bag in the future. I believe this design has potential and intend to continue exploring the uses of climbing ropes in the future.
