COOLEST MODULAR BAG

It is a modular schoolbag specifically designed for children aged 6 to 12 years old. It aims to minimise back/shoulder strains that school children experience by reducing the load carried by them, as well as making backpacks fun and easy to pack.

Experts suggest that to prevent the risk or future back injuries, a child should not carry a backpack that is more than 10% of his/her body weight. So why are children carrying such heavy backpacks everyday? It turns out that the root cause to this problem is quite fundamental- laziness. We realised that children often procrastinate when it comes to packing their bags and as a result, their bag becomes heavier as the week progresses. Hence our goal in this design is to make a more intuitive backpack that is fun and easy to use.

The traditional housing of the school bag is replaced with easily attachable and removable modular compartments of different shapes and sizes, held together by easy-to-use semi-mechanical magnets. Each compartment corresponds to a particular subject, simplifying daily packing, and turning the act of packing from a burden to an instrument of creativity and fun. Additionally, the bag employs a suspension system with no straps. Malleable but firm shoulder supports hug the front and top of the shoulders, while the magnetically fastened hip belt embraces the hip of the wearer. Applied in tandem with a curved memory foam backing (with ventilation channels) that lies snug against the entire back of the wearer, the bag provides maximum surface area transference which optimizes its weight distribution and static friction between the two bodies, allowing it to follow the wearer’s torso exactly, even when running.

Now you can do the changes according to your requirements

Our first priority in the design process is to make the backpack modular. We initially thought of using pure magnets to 'connect' various compartments together, but we were unable to find a suitable product that was already in the market for us to implement in our design. Thankfully, we managed to find a mechanical magnet which has both the functionality of a mechanical buckle and a durability and strength of a magnet. The mechanical magnet is easy and intuitive to use- to attach compartments just place them together and the magnets will attach and secure the compartments. To remove, simply detach two compartments in a vertical fashion (see video for example). Next, we wanted our prototype to be as lightweight as possible. We decided that the dimensions of the backpack should be as close to the dimensions of a standard elementary school textbook. The logic behind this is that conventional commercial school bags are often too big and bulky, which often leads to excess space and most importantly, room for school children to overpack. Our goal is to strip what a student brings to school to its bare essentials- no more, no less. If there is a need to bring extra items for school, the child can easily do so by attaching another compartment.

While most bags for school children focus on physical solutions, It harnesses the behavioural element of design to address the bag’s root problem - its wearer. Instead of trying to solve physical inevitabilities, it focuses instead on inculcating healthy packing and strap habits. Designed specifically for schoolchildren, it employs fun as the key agent, compelling the student not through restriction but by enabling with ease. By making the operations of the bag fun and easy to execute, the child is compelled towards healthier backpack habits. it is not just a tool - it is a radical step in the direction of raising awareness of children’s needs to their parents, who are often the accidental culprits behind their children’s poor backpack habits, with repercussions on the health of their spines. it aims to inspire the inception of more child-oriented bags in the market, all while allowing schoolchildren to stand tall.