Hueco
Team: Alaina Keys, Jett Chang-Lam, Jerred Mace
The sport of bouldering is lightweight compared to more traditional rock climbing. Participants rely on the essentials: a foam crash pad, a pair of climbing shoes, and a bag of chalk. Despite the sport’s growing popularity, boulderers are expected to use bags designed for other activities. As a result, chalk gets everywhere. Boulderers attempt to mitigate this by storing loose chalk in a chalk sock, their chalk sock in a chalk bag, the chalk bag in a zip lock bag, and the zip lock bag in a larger drawstring bag. This storage sequence and lack of market alternatives highlights the need for a new pack, designed specifically for boulderers.
Hueco is an ultra-lightweight bouldering pack that addresses the needs of real climbers. We identified through user research that climbers have three main pain points: organization, cleanliness, and comfort. To address organization and cleanliness, Hueco features an internal pocket to keep messy items compartmentalized. Moreover, a user informed us that boulderers take off their climbing shoes to walk short distances to new rock faces. This user flow inspired us to design external pockets for easy access between climbs. We also learned that boulderers either sandwich their backpacks in the fold of their crash pads or carry their backpack on their front side. Our backpack boasts a slender profile and modified S straps to accommodate either transportation method.
