Design So Exciting It Keeps Audiences In Their Seats
“But mommy, I’m a big kid now.” --Any kid who’s ever traveled in any car. Anywhere.
Perhaps the only certainty in raising children is that the speed they go is faster than the speed they grow. Dorel Juvenile Group understood this all too well when it approached ROBRADY design to develop the Store-N-Go® backless booster seat concept for their popular Safety 1st brand.
For this project, ROBRADY’s experience with meeting or exceeding regulatory standards was an advantage since safety was of paramount concern. Dorel’s idea was to create a product that engaged children, instilled a sense of independence and ownership and kept them in the booster seat after they were “too grown up”. This objective required ROBRADY’s expertise in designing products that find symmetry between demanding standards and consumer appeal.
Dorel’s third objective for their belt-positioning seat made this project anything but child’s play. Beyond satisfying all safety standards and incorporating a unique feature that appealed to kids, the Store-N-Go® had to be manufactured in the Columbus, Indiana – Made in the USA - plant with very stringent costing pressures. A target that was met by the collaborative work between Dorel managers and ROBRADY engineers.
Their idea to engage children was simple: add a lockable drawer for their stuff. By incorporating a feature found in their parents’ passenger seat, the Store-N-Go® seemed less like a booster and more like a “big kid chair.” However, incorporating an easily accessible center drawer meant a significant design change that re-distributed weight to the sides of the seat instead of down the middle. The studio’s exhaustive material analysis and design revisions, coupled with Dorel’s rigorous simulations and crash tests, insured that innovation didn’t sacrifice safety.
To utilize the existing machinery of the U.S. factory, the team hit upon a single, revolutionary idea: “Lose the screws.”
The new design, which snapped together instead of using fasteners, meant units could move from the mold to the package in no more than thirty seconds and required no additional machinery and minimal hands-on time. The product saves lives; the process saves jobs.
The seat of the Store-N-Go®’s triumph is in what it changes. Traveling is no longer a trip, it’s an adventure where young passengers bring their action figures, stuffed animals, games and books along for the ride (and if the booster happens to keep children safe, their possessions organized, and save mom and dad from hazardous distractions…well, that’s good too).
> To learn more about Dorel Juvenile Group, visit their website at www.djgusa.com.
> To order your booster seat, click here!.
