For people that travel often, or commute once and a while carrying and managing their stuff is always the biggest concern. With backpacks, you can by a big one if you need one but then you can't use it for smaller tasks. Backpacks always take up lots of space, no matter how big or small. Although a briefcase may be a smaller solution, you have to carry it with you all of the time. This might not be awful for shorter commutes, but for longer walks, you will have to switch arms relatively often. With briefcases and backpacks you are unable to access your things while on the move. They are usually out of immediate reach, which also makes them easier to pickpocket from. Backpacks can only be adjusted to different tightness settings, making them either on your back or off of your back in the size that you buy it in. 

    Our pants are a set of normal pants with a strap system that mounts to dowels. This then allows pockets of various shapes and sizes to be added to the pants. For a big trip, like hiking for example, having all of your clothes and other equipment stored in your hiking bag can be very strenuous on your back. If they are on your legs, then you won't feel a lot of extra muscle strain if you balance the pockets on each leg. When you aren't on a hiking trip, and are just going to work, you can take off or add on as many pockets as you like. Because our pants are fully modular, they fit any lifestyle or career path. Whether you are living in nature or living in the city, these pants are perfect for you.

    To make our pocket system we took design queues from many different places. Our first idea was to have the pockets free hanging off of the pants. We soon realized that this wasn't the best idea. Then we came up with the solution of having some sort of semi-rigid body that would be sewn into the pants. Despite being semi-rigid, it would still constrict movement to the point that it may be uncomfortable. However, we still wanted to look into this. The first thing we looked at was a back brace. This is an elastic piece of cloth with one or two semi-rigid spines that keep your back in the right position, without restricting movement too much. The next thing we looked at was a hiking backpack internal frame. This helped us a lot by not only showing us how something that holds its shape could be sewn into fabric, but it also showed us a lot about how weight balancing works. The last thing we looked at was the way that a tent is put together. This really got us rethinking our semi-rigid design. This showed us that with dowels or something similar, we could make a mounting piece that fit into the pants or even on adjustable straps that could be taken on or off. This is where we started working and we got into our prototypes.

    After sketching out our ideas, we jumped right into prototyping. The first iteration was a frame with a few pockets on it. We made these with hot glue and felt. This was a proof of concept, then we started learning how to sew. This was very helpful because we were able to take our prototype pockets and expand on them later. The second iteration was a frame that mounted on the side of the leg with a joint at the knee. We wanted to explore this and one without a joint because we weren't sure whether structural strength or full range of movement would be more important. We laser cut a frame with a belt mount from cardboard. Then we attached a lazy Susan as a joint. If we did continue with this design, we probably would have ended up using some other form of a sliding mechanism instead of a ball bearing system. This did prove that it'd allow forward and backward movement, but not a lot of flexibility to more free flowing motion. The next iteration was one with a break at the knee. This design was a little big simpler, it was cardboard rings that were mounted in pairs above and below the knee. we also used small struts to provide support for the two rings. This design worked as expected. It ended up working well and it showed us that with more flexibility comes less overall structural integrity. We decided to pursue the frame with a break at the knee instead of one with a joint. The next step involved making straps that were held together with 3D printed clips that held dowels in the middle. This was the design that we further expanded into our final product of this studio. This design allows for full range of movement with a great amount of structural support for the pockets. The next step was making the pockets as well as a mounting system for them. The pockets themselves weren't too difficult to make, but the mounting system required a bit of brainstorming. We had to take the dowel clips, and adapt them so that the are open on the top. We used fusion to model them and they work very well. We mounted them to the back of the pockets with a strap that we sewed on.

    In the end, our pants solved a big problem: having a structurally sound, secure, adaptable, space for you to hold all of the things you need for your day. Whether you travel all around the world, or around your town, our modular pants are perfect for you.