Product Developer for Equipment
From 2018 to 2021, I was the product developer for sleeping bags, packs, tents and gloves at Marmot. Here is a sample of some products I worked on as a developer. My role included the refining the design once handed off from the designer, getting the product to hit a certain price margin, assist in fabric / trim selection, manage and maintain the product information, and act as the direct contact between Marmot and our international manufacturing partners to deliver world-class product on-time to the consumers.
One way I have expanded my role is to work closely with our athletes, and design team so that we are testing our products properly to make sure that they perform out in the real world when people rely on them most.
Photo: Ben Matthews
650’s Series Sleeping Bags
The 650 Series of down sleeping bags has been a cornerstone in the Marmot sleeping bag line for over 20 years. The tenants of the series is providing a warm down sleeping bag, in a comfortable fit, at an affordable price.
Each sleeping bag uses certified 650FP duck down with down defender. For the update, we adjusted the fit, added extended draft tubes to give the top layer more room to be like a blanket, created a footbox zipper to allow more room in the bag, and maintain the same total fill weight and overall weight. There are 10 different styles, with at least 2 sizes per styles in the series. I tested each style to the ISO 23537 to make sure they are warm enough for the conditions we are recommending the sleeping bags to be used in.
Designer: Mike Angelini / Ruth Beatty
Material Specialist: Kelvin Meeks
Category Manager: Emilee Campbell
Wahoo Gully Pack
This pack was developed as a backcountry ski/snowboarding pack with custom branded ski straps. This pack took about 6 months to develop, with 4 rounds of samples, and 2 rounds of athlete testing. This pack has the ability to cross carry skis, side carry skis, and back carry snowboard.
This was a particularly interesting development with execution of the soft TPU ski straps. Working on the different kinds of material and strength testing at different shore values with one of our trim suppliers.
Designer: Lowercase Collective
Material Specialist: Kelvin Meeks
Category Manager: Emilee Campbell
Photo: Andy Cochrane
Idlewild Series
This series was created to premiere with the Torreya Tent, as a collection of elevated car camping equipment. In the synthetic sleeping bag market of 2019, the buy an extremely budget and buy home brand name tents from Walmart, with the expectation that the quality would be low or have to invest in backpacking equipment with the sacrifices of comfort that could be afforded with car camping.
Utilizing soft materials, wide proportions, and high lofted insulation construction, we focused on bringing the experience of sleeping in your bed as close as possible to the someone who doesn’t want to just sleep in the dirt.
Designer: Mike Angelini
Material Specialist: Kelvin Meeks
Category Manager: Emilee Campbell
Gear Testing Photo by Pete Takeda
Dragtooth Gloves
We developed an all leather ice climbing glove for those who want a little more warmth than a standard work glove, but for those who still want the protection and dexterity that can be expected from an all leather climbing glove. We really focused on fit and field testing with a couple of our athletes, like Pete Takeda and Tristan Sieleman. Early on the development process I sent first round sample to the both of them at a size Medium and Small so we made sure we are provide reinforcement for rope wear, but not over become overly bulky and lose dexterity.
For this glove series I was the primary designer and developer.
Material Specialist: Kelvin Meeks
Category Manager: Emilee Campbell
Some more products I developed at Marmot:
