REI CO-OP CACHE BEAR CANISTER
PERSONAL/CONCEPTUAL WORK
REI Co-op has created countless products for its own brand to give their customers a less expensive, and just as high of quality product alternative to the other name brand products that are sold in their stores. At the moment there are a few bear resistant food canisters that REI sells, but all of them fall short in maximizing the shelf life of the food stored in them for backpacking and camping trips.
As both a brand positioning and rapid product development exercise I took the challenge to create a conceptual bear canister fit for REI that would help adventurers enjoy their food longer and at their own leisure. The final solution was a bear-resistant food container with evaporative cooling.
Check out my research here: Portres Research
DISCIPLINES
Industrial Design, Market Research, Sketching, Prototyping, CAD, Visualization, Market Research
As it turns out the shape to give enough surface area for evaporation to be most efficient is a tetrahedron or a cylinder that is as tall as it is wide. With most of the bear canister market using a cylinder as a base for the form, it was the practical way to go.
The locking device is similar to that of a pill bottle. When opposite sides are pushed together it allows the top to unscrew.
The user opens the container, soaks the microfiber pads with water, lines them along the inside between the dividers, places the rubber gaskets on each end of the aluminum insert for an airtight seal, puts the insert into the ribs of the dividers, places the food inside, and finally screws the lid back on until they hear repeated clicks. At that point evaporation will begin to take place and the aluminum insert will conduct the cold feeling of the evaporation to the food preserving it for a longer period of time.
If you want some more juicy details about the research and development of this project head over to: Portres Research