The mission of the Design & Innovation Award is to shape the bicycle world in a positive way. It also serves as a forum for creativity, visionary ideas as well as the industry’s most innovative products. More than 40 experts from 10 countries joined this year’s event to test, analyze and judge the best and most innovative products of 2016 in Kronplatz/San Vigilio – Dolomites. The Gold Award recognises either perfect product design and function, or innovation that sets a new standard and inspires future product generations and forward-thinking approaches.
Most of today’s innovations represent advances through intelligent, incremental steps of evolution, and it’s rare to see a small brand question a long-established design. UK company Fabric have demonstrated a very different approach, totally rethinking a classic design that has been unchallenged for generations. Since the birth of bikes, the simple bottle and cage has largely remained unchanged; those same two bottle bosses mounted in the frame have remained unaffected by new standards and changing technology. The system certainly works, but when the bottle is removed from the bike, you are left with that same ugly bottle cage, obtrusive and inelegant.
With their new Cageless Water Bottle, Fabric have challenged tradition, and the end result is a masterpiece of design. By incorporating a simple, new mounting system that uses the existing bottle bosses in a very different way, Fabric have revolutionised the function of the simple bottle. Two tiny plastic studs are screwed into the bottle cage bosses, weighing only 1.5 g each, and a BPA-free bottle simply slots into place. The connection is firm and secure, and despite the test team’s best efforts, the bottle could not be shaken loose. When the bottle is not in place, all that is left behind are the two almost invisible, impressively light studs, keeping the lines of the bike clean and tidy. In use, the inexpensive bottle is initially a little trickier to locate than some caged designs, but all you need is some practice. From a design standpoint, the form and lightweight function is unmatched. Furthermore, the Fabric Cageless Bottle design will inspire other designers to question the established, think the unthinkable, and create truly new solutions to issues that others have overlooked.
Price: € 14.90 | Weight: 74g | fabric.cc
Find out more about the other winners of the Design & Innovation Award 2016.
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