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A Kamloops commercial designer says he has the solution for protecting wine bottles and expensive bongs on the go.
Kanda James, a partner at Armoured Labs, a company that creates environmentally friendly sporting good products, said he has come up with a protective bag to challenge the military drop test — meaning it can be dropped from eight feet more than once, from all sides, and still protect its contents.
"The idea behind it kind of came about when I was down long boarding or surfing at the beach, and I see all these people walking around with their bongs — and they didn't have any bags,” James said.
“And often you'd meet with them and you hear stories of people like crashing on their bicycle or their skateboard and they break their bong.”
He said that was what prompted him to look into protective bags but when he couldn’t find any that were adequate, he said they could make a better option.
The bag has an air pump and release valve, making the product mold around its contents.
James credits the inspiration behind the air pump design to a pair of shoes from his childhood.
“One thing that kind of inspired me using an air pump technology is when I was a kid. I bought a pair of shoes from LA Gear back in the '90s, and they had what was like a little air pump thing on the tongue,” he said.
“And you put your foot in there and you would pump it up, and it would actually make the shoe snug around your foot.”
Though James said the pandemic has slowed down the production of the new product, the design was thought of in lockdown.
“The one thing that we noticed is always a positive to negative, when you have time to come up with solutions to problems. It's nice to have that freedom, and that was basically what we’ve done” he said.
“We went back to the drawing board with other products that we can come up with, and now we're basically launching the whole suite of them.”
James said in the next round of production they are looking at featuring local artists. He said Armoured Labs is aiming to have the product available online and in select stores in the spring for $89 to $100.
