LiftRider feels like wearing nothing at all! Comfortable on the chairlift. Balanced on the slopes. Holds everything you need!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Helmets and gloves and keys - "Oh My!"
over 7 years ago
– Wed, Jul 19, 2017 at 04:35:49 PM
Thanks again for all the fantastic feedback and awesome ideas!
Helmet Carry
Many of you asked for a way to carry your helmet. Here is what you told me:
It should be easy to attach and remove.
It shouldn’t swing.
It shouldn’t fill up with snow when it is snowing.
I tried many different possibilities. This solution was suggested by quite a few of you. I think you will like the way it turned out:
Two loops just the right size.
Attach through one loop for easy on-off if. If the swing bothers you attach through both loops. If it is snowing put your helmet on your head :)
Glove Hook
Many of you asked for a place to hang your gloves like when texting on the chair or using the bathroom. Here is what you told me:
Easy on off - no latches to fumble with
Secure so I don’t accidentally bump them off while on the lift
This one was a bit tricky. I spent a lot of time messing around with and modifying common snap hooks like these:
Way too awkward to use.
I even designed a custom part - too expensive!
Finally I found exactly what we were looking for.
Check out the part I adapted for the job. Can you guess what it was originally designed for?
Super easy on and off!
Perfectly secure!
Opposite strap from the phone so you can hang your gloves while using the phone.
I also added a loop to attach a mini carabiner. Always handy.
I thought the carabiner looked so cute on the pack I bought one for each of us! Your LiftRider will come with an all black mini-carabiner included!
Key Ring
Finally, many of you asked for a key ring in the top compartment. Here is the one I picked out for us. It has a push button detach rather than a snap hook. I thought this would be easier to handle when you have gloves on.
Super cute and effective.
How can I get another LiftRider?
Many of you have sent messages asking how you can get another bag. I have thought about it and I want to do something special for existing backers. You put your faith me well before you knew whether we would be able to make this happen. And I really want to return the favor.
Don’t use the pre-order button just yet. It will charge you the current pre-order price of $125 plus shipping. Give me a couple of weeks. I will figure out a way where I can allow only backers to get additional packs at a great discount and benefit from the combined shipping.
LiftRider and the Magical Phone Pocket
over 7 years ago
– Tue, Jul 18, 2017 at 12:40:47 AM
It is really wonderful to have all of us participating on this project together. Your feedback and support continues to be instrumental in making LiftRider a totally unique and fantastic product.
Phone integration was an area where you provided a ton of great feedback and ideas.
Here are some of the things you wanted:
Ability to carry a small or large phone on your shoulder strap
A way to route ear buds
A way to keep the phone warm on cold days
A way to keep your phone charged all day
I think you are really gonna love the way it all turned out.
Check out how nicely a standard size phone fits:
Honestly, I figured there was no way we could get a plus size iPhone on your shoulder so I promised to accommodate only standard size.
But I was really worried about disappointing those of you who carry bigger phones. I must have tried half a dozen ideas to get a big phone to work. I tried zipper on both sides of the strap with ability to pull out an expansion compartment. I tried a strap with an odd shaped bulge on one side. I tried stretchy fabrics. I tried conceal zippers from the garment industry (which had my bag factory shaking their heads). I tried a funny shaped strap with a bulge in it.
Finally. when I was just about to give up, Mr. Chen, our master pattern maker at the factory, sewed up this simple design.
Check it out with an iPhone Plus with a bulky case!
It is kind of magical!
The earbud routing came out really nice:
Several of you suggested a small pouch to insert a hand warmer to keep your phone battery from dying on really cold days. It also works for carrying a credit card or lift pass. I also included the same handwarmer pouch on the other side to keep the hydration bite valve from freezing on super cold days.
Simple and effective!
Finally, you can also charge your phone right on your shoulder strap. We included routing for a charge cable from a special pocket in the back of of the pack to your shoulder pocket. That way you can insert a power-bank (battery charger) in the back and charge your phone on your shoulder. Really nice.
You can still preorder LiftRider!
Please tell your friends!
I am still negotiating with the factory regarding colors and it would be really great if we had more orders!
Out With the Old In With The New
over 7 years ago
– Fri, Jul 14, 2017 at 12:19:47 AM
Thank you so much! Your generous support and trust allowed us to embark on this fantastic adventure together. I am so grateful!
I love our original production prototype. And the improvements we have made to it are simply stunning.
In this update I will show you how we improved the exterior design of LiftRider. Future updates will explore each new feature and enhancement in detail.
Sleeker, Cleaner, Better Fitting
LiftRider 2.0 is incredibly streamlined. It rides a bit lower and contours to your back even better than before. The straps and strap pockets are sleek and low profile. The material on LiftRider 2.0 is super high quality and really gorgeous.
I moved the sternum strap guides to the back of the shoulder straps which really cleans up the front of the straps.
Handles are never pretty on backpacks. I tried so many ideas for where to place the handle.
Finally I found the perfect spot. I have never seen it done this way on a pack. Yet another first for LiftRider?
Can you guess where I put it?
I think this back view really shows how sleek and elegant LiftRider2.0 looks. I have hidden the zippers giving it a really clean look. The zipper pulls are really nice. And the material is very rich and substantial.
I also extended the side pockets creating elegant unbroken lines. The side pockets are taller so now you can fit a tall bottle of something.
So… Where Did I Put that Carry Strap?
Did you guess where the carry handle went?
Tune in for a future update and I will show you!
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Factory
over 7 years ago
– Thu, Jun 29, 2017 at 05:58:56 PM
A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Factory
The day after our successful Kickstarter closed I hopped on a flight to Guangzhou China to manufacture the new and improved version of our awesome LiftRider.
I had a four page list of things I wanted to improve. I wanted to create a backpack that fits your body better than any pack in the world. I wanted to completely redesign the shoulder straps to make them less bulky and easier to manufacture. I wanted to add many cool new features, like helmet carry, glove hook, charger routing to phone pocket, headphones and so much more. I created a custom injection moulded part for the insanity strap adjustment system. I completely redesigned the hydration bladder. My list was long but I had a vision.
I was on a mission.
I expected to sit with the pattern-maker at our original factory for a couple weeks and make LiftRider the pack of my dreams.
After a couple days though I realized that our pattern-maker was not up to the challenge. I tried several other backpack pattern-makers and was equally disappointed before I had an epiphany.
A backpack pattern-maker thinks of his job as essentially strapping a box to your back. I wanted something else. I wanted a backpack that fits like a glove. Like a fine dress.
And then it occurred to me. What about a fashion design pattern-maker? I looked around Guangzhou (a bustling city of 25 Million people) and found a lovely woman. Sonia is a fashion designer who owns a women fashion factory in Guangzhou where she creates beautiful garments under her own brand, Kleen, for sale in the US and Canada.
Sonia listened to me and took me under her wing. She let me use her master pattern-maker, Ershen, to completely rework the patterns for LiftRider. At first Ershen was worried that he knew nothing about designing a backpack. I told him not to worry. I wanted him to make the first pack in the world to fit as well as a fine dress. And we got down to work.
I quickly realized what a stroke of luck this was. A backpack pattern-maker is like a framer of a house working with a framers hammer and a skill saw. He doesn't worry much about an inch here or there. A dress pattern-maker is like a fine woodworker. He sweats 1/32 of an inch. He is only happy with a perfect fit.
We sewed the original patterns in lightweight cotton twill dress material and put the pack on a dressmakers form. The flaws were instantly apparent. Now Ershen was in his realm. He quickly made fine adjustments to the patterns and we made sample after sample over that week till we created a pack that I believe fits better than any backpack in the world.
Sonia with her master pattern maker Ershen in the foreground. Three other pattern makers from Kleen (her womens apparel brand) in the background.
Ershen revising the patterns again and again on paper.
Ershen sewing yet another sample
Sonia and Ershen adjusting to achieve a dress like fit.
A proud moment
Sonia was so kind and generous. She let me commandeer her factory and master pattern-maker for a week and would not take payment. She finally agreed to let me pay Ershen cash directly for his invaluable work.
Sonia helping me choose fabrics and colors. So blessed to have the help of a successful fashion designer in this process!
The Digital Gap
Ershen started with computer patterns. But he found that iterating was quicker with paper and so we ended up with paper patterns which I needed to digitize.
Sonia’s digitizing tablet was broken and this led me on another serendipitous search where I found another lovely and generous dress designer and factory owner.
Jessie owns a dress factory where she sells apparel under her own brand “Juicy Cat” in Europe. She sent her clerk to pick up my paper patterns and had her master digitize them in one day.
Again she would not accept payment for the work. I had to leave cash on her desk after a long session of making and drinking traditional tea and telling stories in her office.
With Jessie at her factory.
Ershen and Jessies master double check the digitized print out against Ershen’s paper patterns.
Jessie making us tea. She seems so young to have her own brand a factory with several hundred workers.
I had fantastic luck with dress designers. But now it was time to find a bag factory worthy of our gorgeous masterpiece.
Factory Hunting
With perfect patterns in hand and a sample shell sewn in light twill I had to find a factory that was worthy of our beautiful backpack. And so started my grand tour of bag factories all around southern China.
I was being very picky.
I wanted a factory with a master sample maker who could think outside box and was not stuck in his ways. It had to have a sample room that could print and cut patterns automatically from computer to make iterations faster. It had to have a stellar reputation for quality and have provided bags for major brands. And it had to be willing to work with our small order of 1000 pieces and our unique bag.
After a week of multiple factory visits per day I was beginning to despair that the factory I was looking for did not exist. Finally just as I was loosing hope, I found the gem of my dreams.
Our factory exceeded all of my demanding criteria. Our factory owner Mr. Huang has created a beautifully run operation that hums along at an incredible pace. The sample room is a joy. It has computerized pattern-making and cutting capability, two cutters, and 6 master seamstresses. And best of all our master pattern / sample maker, Mr Chan, is a genius who can think out of the box. Mr. Chan got really excited about how different LiftRider is from traditional backpacks. He relished the challenge of creating something new and beautiful.
Mr. Huang our factory owner (shaking my hand) inviting me to yet another fabulous dinner.
Meeting with Mr. Chan our Master bag pattern maker in our factory’s display room
Mr. Chan checks out our digital patterns
Auto print and cut nice!
Mr. Chan sewing some early tests himself
Working out an idea to make our pack more manufacturable. Sometimes the best way to explain something is make a model and show it. That is exactly what I did here.
One of our factory’s many production lines
I spent two full weeks essentially living in the sample room, eating lunch and dinner with the workers in the factory mess hall and enjoying the most civilized Chinese tradition of all - a short nap after lunch on the sample room floor.
Seamstresses in our sample room
Lunchtime at our factory canteen
Lunch with one of our sample room seamstresses
Cutters in the sample room taking a nap after lunch
Work hours at the factory are from 8:30 am to 9:00 pm. Lunch, dinner and nap account for 2 hours making a 10 hour work day of solid hard work. The normal work week is 6 days or 60 hours. The factory was very busy while I was there so they were also working Sundays. 7 days - 70 hours per week.
Naptime after lunch my favorite time of day.
We made sample after sample. We carefully thought through and perfected every tiny detail of LiftRider until we felt we had created a product like no other in the world.
Four seamstresses in the sample room sewing our final samples at the same time!
I can't wait to show you pics of the new bag and tell you about all the improvements and updates!
Up Next
In upcoming updates. I will share with you all the cool new features of LiftRider and how we made the bag even more beautiful than before. And of course I will share photos of our gorgeous bag!
Colors
I am making samples of 4 different colors.
Black / Grey
Black / Red
Grey / Orange
Grey / Blue
I will photograph these samples and then we will have another survey where you pick the top 3.
If we are able to sell 400 more bags before we start production in August we can make all 4 colors!
You Can Still Pre-Order and Save!
You can still pre-order a (another) LiftRider for well under what it will sell for after production! Grab another for yourself or your loved one now!
And please please please share with your friends!
Facebook: CLICK HERE! (be sure to tag some friends)
