What products would YOU like to see for long distance hiking?

imported
#1

Hi Everyone,

I’m a 4th year product design student and I am centering my Thesis project around Hiking equipment. I feel that it would be most worth my time to focus on products for purists and hardcore ethusiasts. I am considering products for long distance hiking and trails as my focus.

Anyway, I’m wondering if you guys can help to give me some insight on needs and problems associated with long distance hiking that could be solved with a product solution. Some initial ideas I have had is an emergency trail station which would include medical supplies, small food and water rations, and a map with an exact location and GPS coordinates. Maybe it would also have some sort of communication to a ranger or park station. It would be something I would like to place on the Appalachian Trail or other large national trail systems.

I have also thought about some sort of food cache, or maybe even a food cache station for multiple people that could be supplied by outfitters in areas that are more inaccesible. I would like that product to have multiple compartments so small parties of people or seperate individuals could be supplied and have their own key to open their compartment when they arive. Again I would like to have some sort of locator and maybe excess first aid stuff in it as an honor system take if you need kind of thing on that too.

Tell me what you guys think of these ideas, and let me know if you have any other ideas as to products you would like to see, or problems that you regularly encounter. I’m hoping to gather enough research on this through interviews, personal correspondance, and a week long Volunteer Vacation through AVS at Pine Mountain near the Cumberland Gap. Thank you for your time.

Jason

HonorOFeagle

#2

Manufacturers that make footwear that will fit a foot after pounding it for a thousand miles. Apparently very few have heard the term “wide” or “E, EE, EEE,”. Air conditioning for tents. Even lighter materials for everything. More choices of pre dehydrated food with less extra ingredients. Just food, thankyou, not chemicals. Snickers without hydrogenated veggy oil. Have you tested your cholesterol lately?

Bushwhack

#3

Define “purists and hardcore enthusiasts” please.

TJ aka Teej

#4

Well, let’s see. People are already working on various packs and other equipment that is lighter.

Certainly Bushwack is onto something with food. Mac and cheese is a great staple of backpackers, primarily because of its calories per ounce ratio, plus availability and cost. Maybe there could be some new products suitable for grocery stores and not priced like backpacking food. One problem is that most backpacking food is not priced right for thru-hikers. MRE’s without all the packaging waste?

Along the trail, how about something simple like water when you want it and without requireing treatment? That would take pounds out of everyone’s pack.

Peaks

#5

You would likely run into opposition to emergency/first aid/food caches from the official organizations (NPS, ATC, etc.) and from many hikers. I’d bet that most hikers (especially the purists and hardcore enthusiasts) would rather pack it in and pack it out than have it waiting for them. Self-sufficiency is a good thing.

However, to offer an idea for a new product, how about a portable CD burner that accepts digital camera flash media cards. All it would need to do is read a flash media card and burn its contents onto a CD to be mailed home from the trail. More and more hikers are going digital and the challenges of getting your pictures home force most to have multiple flash media cards and send them home in a rotation. This is difficult since you have to have a friend back home who will download your pictures and send the empty card back to you on the trail. Cutting out the middle man eliminates possible logistics problems (which PO did my buddy send it to??? shoot, it’s Sunday:bawling). You can probably imagine more elaborate systems that may work better, but this is the simplest I could think of in a few minutes.

Weight wouldn’t be that much of an issue since this would most likely end up being a bounce box item.

Other than that, bulk dehydrated veggies would be nice (are they out there somewhere?). Or a hammock that doubles as a real tent, not just a hammock lying on the ground.

Good luck!

Wedding Singer

#6

TJ,

I guess by that I mean people who are accustomed to doing long distance hikes on a regular basis or through hiking, and those who have more of an interest in being in total isolation instead of a few miles away from everday conviences. I’d like to focus on products for experienced people who spend a great amount of time hiking.

HonorOFeagle

#7

I’ve thought somewhat about sort of “break shelter”/hammock tent idea. For that I’m thinking along the lines of having a low volume true one man shelter that you would rig up like a hammock but also have a small dome above it and overlapping bottom flaps to protect your backpack as it is left out overnight underneath you.

That would probably have somekind of sewn in padding on the bottom, and not much more then thin bugscreening on top. My reasoning behind that being that if it were really easy to set up, and pretty airy, you could put it up on a long lunch break and rest in it for an hour or so before getting back on the trail, or use it as a simple place to rest after hiking. My favorite way to spend my wind down time after I have set up camp for the evening is to head down by the water and take a nap then pull out a book and read until sunset. I kind of envision this as a product you could do that in.

HonorOFeagle

#8

I guess the idea behind the Emergency station is that it would be placed in areas with little access to water, or in places with difficult conditions that may bring upon people more injuries. I would like to have a reasonable supply of water placed there, additional first aid, and maybe some food rations available in a vending style arangment. I would like to set up the water and first aid to be on a “take it if you really need it” honor system. One downfall that I can see already is that it would of course have to be serviced and filled. This might move more towards easier and often traveled trail systems.

HonorOFeagle

#9

New foods that will be light enough so you can carry a week to three weeks without it weighing a ton. Freeze dried is light but also tastes light crap.

Bushwhack

#10

Not to impugn your new vocation, but some of us think our hiking would be better served with less fascination over "new products” and more time spent in contemplation of nature and our place in it.

That said, I am a loyal American consumer (the best in the world, dontcha know) and young feller, you’ve got my imagination tuned to QVC. OK, alright, how about a backpack wired with solar cells to recharge batteries (AA, AAA, camera, pocketmail, etc.)? Or a tiny fuel cell compartment powered by denatured alcohol for the same purpose? Fifty years of programming by Madison Avenue has not been wasted - already my credit card finger is getting itchy! Meet you at Campmor!

Harlz

#11

First, a general rule is that it takes about 3 weeks to starve to death, (3 hours for exposure, 3 days for dehydration). There is certainly some leeway. But it would be real hard to starve to death on the AT, what with all the traffic. Another trail, maybe you could get lost and hungry. To place these emergency rations/water/first aid, you would need to know where someone is going to get lost. The number of places where someone can get lost is staggering, so unless you place a lot of these, the packets will be useless. A place where they would likely be used is near a shelter, but then, one would not be too lost. And if you know where you’re at, you should have enough food and supplies to be there in the first place.

The food cache station sounds like having a Macdonald’s in the middle of the trail. It might have more merit in a more remote setting for extended trips. Also, a system for water caches might be more acceptable in arid climates where carrying enough water is just not possible.

The flash card/CD burner could be a good idea. Why not make suggestions to the local outfitters to provide this as a chargeable service though. For a few dollars, have a reader and burner available. It could bring in a couple of bucks. Two bucks maybe three. Although, I don’t know if the cards are standardized?

Alligator

#12

That’s a pretty good idea Alligator. Most outfitters probably have a computer on site. They could get universal card readers and CD burners and charge a few bucks ($5 at the most) to download your pics onto CD. That’s much simpler than my idea, the technology already exists. Any outfitters along the trail listening out there?

Wedding Singer

#13

I know what you are saying about the facination with “the next big thing”, etc. The mean reason I go out in the woods myself is to get away from everything that is a part of my daily life. That being said, I do want to do something may have a postive effect on hiking with as little damage as possible to the environment.

I’ve also kind of toyed with some solar powered ideas, the battery charger is a good idea! If I can come up with a grouping of 2 or 3 products that use solar energy I think it would be a good direction. One that came to mind already would be some kind of “solar clothes sack” that you could put wet clothes in and sling over your backpack as you hiked. Maybe some kind of drying agent would be contained in the bottom too. Thanks for your imput.

Jason

honorOFeagle

#14

Some good suggestions there, thank you. I think it would be a great idea to have a service established by outfitters to handle digital media. My end of things involves the invention of new products though. I like the water cache idea, that maybe able to go someplace. I have heard that they have made some efforts to put such a thing out in the desert near the US/Mexico border so that people crossing illegally don’t die out there when they underestimate what they are facing ahead of them.

Jason

P.S. Thank you very much for your imput guys, it is much appreciated.

honorOFeagle

#15

Better and less expensive foods is something I really wish I could do something about. I’m not sure what direction I would want to take with something like that though. It would probably get more technical and involved then I could directly solve myself.

Do you guys think there would be a great enough need for some sort of cooler type set up that would preserve perishable stuff? I’m not talking about keeping milk cold all week or something like that, but maybe more along the lines of cheese, sausage, some vegetables, and other stuff that would last 4 or 6 days in if they had better insulation. I think it would definately have to be a low weight solution through insulating materials and maybe chemcials (in the insulation not the food) to achieve that.

Jason

honorOFeagle

#16

Mmmmmmm…beer!
Perhaps some dehydrated water, too.

Scamp

Scamp

#17

A fabric that actually IS breathable would be great.

Blue Jay

#18

Sorry I forgot the word waterproof prior to fabric.

Blue Jay

#19

Jason,

You stick a “Vending Styled” ANYTHING on that trail and I will shoot you myself!!:x

If you are looking into anything noteworthy, try developing a cook stove that uses deer poop as fuel! (not kidding!)

I once heard a woman that hiked a considerable distance on the AT, complain that there were too many obstacles in the trail and we should clean it up and take out some of the rocks! Why don’t we just pave the thing while we’re at it!!
I backpack the trail for one reason! B/C the most difficult part of my day is to find water, ration my food and Ponder life! It makes me more appreciate the fact that water now comes from the tap and food from colorful packages. I don’t like to hear people when they talk about taking the wilderness from the trail when the rest of us go there b/c it’s part of the only wilderness left!
Without ranting too much, I understand there are people trying to make life on the trail a little nicer, and perhaps there are equipment ideas that can truley enhance the experience. For this I say thank you for considering those that need to Walk to feel alive.

Skunker

#20

:eek:

I see what you are saying totally. The main reason I go out in the woods is to find a place where there is NOTHING that resembles my daily life. I’m trying to figure out what I can focus on that would be an improvement over current gear or solving some problems that we face, it’s going to be hard to dodge the “next big gimick” syndrome that my field is accompanied by though.

Jason

HonorOFeagle