LALEPÉ - Ergonomic baby carrier

2018

Challenge

The birth of a child enriches the parents with many new experiences in which the constant care of the newborn child during the busy weekdays brings many new challenges to families as well. In the twists and turns of our everyday life, we strive to spend more time with our children to show them the world, whether it is a day-to-day trip or a shared weekend abroad.

"Now is the time when millions of families across the country are starting to plan getaways for spring break, summer vacation and long holiday weekends throughout the year. The bulk of our generation is entering the realm of parenthood and along with that comes family quality time, time often spent traveling. It has become important to millenials to expose their children to varying experiences. Thus, 64% of millenial families having taken at least one international vacation in the past year, which is significantly more than millenial couples or singles." Brian Roberts / Forbs Magazine *

Solution

With each participant family, every individual plays a key role at the product development process. The designers listened, observed, shadowed parents, re-created the experience and the mockup in order to gain a 360° image of the pain points parents go through when traveling with an infant of 0-6 months of age. How can I avoid causing disturbance to the crowd and to my baby? How can I carry everything without any help from strangers? How do I put my child from the pram into a carrierwithout waking them? These questions have not changed since the 1970's - which is what lead to the birth of Lalepé. Lalepé is designed for everyday life. In the first phase of the design process we defined with our customer the most important goal of this product. It is to make everyday activities such as carrying your baby, changing diapers or feeding hassle-free even on the go.

The three key formations cover an entire daily routine of an infant, making products with limited functionality redundant. Lalepé may act as a pram, a sling, a feeding chair and a mat - all in one.

Thanks to its ergonomic design, it focuses on the intimacy of the relationship between the parent and the newborn in addition to the comfort of the child, contributing to a lasting intimate relationship. The three key formations cover an entire daily routine of an infant, making products with limited functionality redundant. Lalepé may act as a pram, a sling, a feeding chair and a mat - all in one.

In cooperation with craftsman, and textile designers we developed different prototypes from premium leather, breathable fabrics and high-quality metal buckles ensure that, beyond the exclusive look, the Lalepé is a truly quality addition to our everyday life with new experiences, both at home and on the go. To the sitting position of Lalepé the Kickstand part during the design phase, in-house 3D printing technologies (Polyjet, SLS, SLA, FDM) assisted the testing of the components. The high-tech 3D printing labor of X-Plast helped the product develpment process. We built in this 3D printed pars in to the prototype products.

Lalepé is only made more personal through the freedom to choose the colors, the texture and accessories, however, the potential lies deeper: with the next development the surface of the product will become a host to life activity tracking. Creating an disturbance history can finally enable a deeper understanding of newborns' behavior and move the child care industry forward.