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Futuristic cycling jacket wins Volvo prize for design and branding

Volvo Safety Jacket in three designs for smart and casual wear could now go into production

Students at the London College of Fashion have been invited to design new prototype clothing inspired by the new Volvo XC90 - with a futuristic safety jacket winning an award for Design, Media, Branding and Merchandising.

The Volvo Safety Jacket, created in three designs: ‘Commuter’ - a classic, tailored style with wearable technology including reflective panels and fibres; ‘Competitive’ for keen cyclists featuring reflective panels, waterproofing and aerodynamic technology and ‘Weekender’, a casual jacket with a relaxed fit, was the final winner.

The three jackets also showcase a number of safety and technology aspects: auto-indication lights left and right turning, auto-light which senses dark and light, anti-collision to predict and alert driver and cyclist to danger and a Volvo group tracker which allows cyclists to communicate and keep track of each other in groups.


Seven chosen prototypes created by the student teams were selected in February but the final winner was announced by special guest, Maria Uggla, Chief Designer, Colour & Material from Volvo Car Group.

This entry, along with other visionary creations from some of the 50 students who participated, is now displayed at the LCFBA15 Show.

The intention is that some of the concepts will be considered for production.

 

Other entries included the ‘XC90 Back to Nature’, a luxury family tent created from diverse and durable fabrics, such as a Cordura Lite Plus exterior, a Kevlar base and cashmere interior.

The tent attaches to the rear of the Volvo XC90. It’s tough but maintains an  luxurious aesthetic in line with Volvo styling.

Another student came up with the XC90 Sound Scape, a sound system ‘where sound and scenery connect’ which can be used with Apple Car Play found in the new Volvo XC90. The system adapts to play music based on the outdoor surroundings determined by weather, traffic and gradients. It brings the outside in and, for example, plays calming mellow sounds in high density traffic, uplifting mood and emotion.

The XC90 Cabin Luggage was another design; a luxury wheeled case which demonstrates how innovation and Swedish simplicity meet luxury and ergonomic design. 


Andrew Hughes, Dean of the School of Management & Science at London College of Fashion, UAL said: ”UAL is extremely excited by this partnership with Volvo.

“Our students have gained valuable insight into the workings of a successful global brand and the opportunity to better understand the relationship between fashion and business.”

Earlier this year we reported how Volvo waded in to the cycling safety debate and familiar waters with Life Paint, the latest piece of reflective spray on paint for cyclists to wear to help those in vehicles see them on the roads.
Spitalfields' bike shop Peloton & Co shifted 500 cans in two days, with hundreds more phone requests from as far away as Australia.

While Volvo asserts its laudable aim to reduce serious injury and deaths caused by its new cars to zero by 2020, concerns have been raised over the efficacy of the product in terms of improving safety, which appears not to be backed by any research. Meanwhile the video it produced to market Life Paint is criticised for overplaying cycling risks.

Mikael Colville-Andersen, CEO of Copenhagenize Design Co., started a petition, calling for Volvos to be sprayed with Life Paint.

He says: "Everything about the life paint campaign is classic smokescreening from the automobile industry.

"Life Paint is simply a way to shift the focus from a failed product that is under fire and place it on the vulnerable traffic users. Pure victim blaming."

He adds: "When you look at things rationally, as I tend to do, you see 35,000 people killed by/in cars in both the EU and the US each year. A 9-11 each month for at least the past 60 years. God forbid if THAT fact starting gaining purchase in society."

Studies have shown increasing visibility improves detection of cyclists - via reflectivity at night or bright colours during the day but there's little evidence of the effect this has on collisions and injuries.

Colville-Andersen, meanwhile, points out evidence from a 20-year Australian study that cars 'lower on the visibility index', like black, blue, grey, green, red and silver, are more likely to be involved in road accidents.

He added: "Where are the Volvos of the world promoting motorist helmets, reflective paint on cars, airbags on the outside of cars that the Dutch have been working on since 2007 and yes, health warnings on cars, etc?"

Jamie Osman, shop manager at Peloton & Co in Spitalfields, East London, said they received 500 samples last Friday, and on Sunday all were gone. Since then, he said, the phone has been ringing constantly with requests, around 400-500 calls at his estimate, as well as emails, Facebook enquiries and requests from Australia and the US asking them to post samples.

He said: "I don't think anyone was prepared for how big it was."

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11 comments

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kcr | 8 years ago
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This is just a reprint of a Volvo press release designed to advertise their cars. Why report this as a story?

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oldstrath | 8 years ago
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"While Volvo asserts its laudable aim to reduce serious injury and deaths caused by its new cars to zero by 2020"

Very laudable, very easily achieved as well. They could do it tomorrow. Stop making cars. Since they won't, I'll put them down as lying hypocrites, just like every other marketing scam merchant.

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gazza_d | 8 years ago
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Is there a Volvo competition where I can enter a design for a driver's seat with a built in taser if they get too close to a walker or cyclist.

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CanAmSteve | 8 years ago
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I'm a Volvo owner and cyclist. IMO, Volvo trades on a safety reputation but falls far short in many areas. For example, it does not universally install reversing cameras in its vehicles (it's about an £800 option) and even dragged its feet on tyre pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) - mandated by the EU as of 2014 (USA in 2012). So Volvo had to provide TPMS by law on all models sold in the USA, but didn't bother to provide it on EU models until it became law (in some cases, this meant 2015 models lack it as well). So - Safety Not As Important as Profits.

However, Volvo (now Chinese-owned) has to have some Unique Selling Proposition. It ain't performance, or value, or reliability, or style... so how about safety? The Swedish heritage - what with the "elk test" and all, made a good handle to hang the idea on. So the MadMen latched onto it and made it their Big Deal. We'll see more of these publicity stunts I'm sure. It doesn't need to make sense or work as long as it generates some coverage

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ChairRDRF | 8 years ago
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All Campag: Thanks for info., I'm indebted to you.

It's still worth noting that Volvo have been synonymous with "safety" for building cars advertised as ones where drivers don't have to worry so much about crashing because of the crashworthiness of the car.

Research (and common sense) has pointed out that this kind of "safety" has rather bad consequences for those outside (in les crashworthy cars, on foot or two wheels).

Volvo has never really addressed this. From time to time there are efforts such as those on cyclist/pedestrian activated braking systems for cars, but these seem to be more about making Volvo look cycle/pedestrian friendly rather than anything concrete which is likely to be beneficial and come in to production within a meaningful time scale.

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ChairRDRF | 8 years ago
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This would be the Volvo who are implicated in the delay of allowing safer lorries (including theirs, of course) to be produced and used on Europe's roads; campaigns to shift responsibility away fro those who endanger others on to their actual and potential victims; etc.

For details see here:: http://rdrf.org.uk/2015/06/04/scania-trucks-keeping-children-safe-whats-...

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Flying Scot replied to ChairRDRF | 8 years ago
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ChairRDRF wrote:

This would be the Volvo who are implicated in the delay of allowing safer lorries (including theirs, of course) to be produced and used on Europe's roads; campaigns to shift responsibility away fro those who endanger others on to their actual and potential victims; etc.

For details see here:: http://rdrf.org.uk/2015/06/04/scania-trucks-keeping-children-safe-whats-...

It's not the same Volvo, the truck division is a conglomeration encompassing Mack and Renault, whereas the cars are a division of Geely, a Chinese company.

Volvo sold the car division to Ford in 99 and Ford offloaded it in 2010 to Geely.

It's the car side promoting this.

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Paul_C | 8 years ago
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for me, any transponder system has to be free for the cyclists and drivers and have no unique id numbering either and be an easy retrofit to any car...

I've already got an anti-theft RFID secreted in my bicycle somewhere...

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Metaphor | 8 years ago
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A safety jacket that blends in with the colour of tarmac? Could at least have made it a stylish red.

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WolfieSmith | 8 years ago
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'anti-collision to predict and alert driver and cyclist to danger.." Eh? What's that then? Some kind of transponder which the 4x4 picks up and shows you on their satnav?

Maybe they could invent shielding like in Star Trek? "Hit by a moron in a hot hatch. Shields down to 40%.." You'd be needing to carry a 10b battery on the bike to power the force field though.. Should be mandatory for bloody cyclists...  4

Not sure about the other jackets but the one shown looks like a grey donkey jacket with some reflective piping on it. I'll take one in navy though..

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Flying Scot replied to WolfieSmith | 8 years ago
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MercuryOne wrote:

'anti-collision to predict and alert driver and cyclist to danger.." Eh? What's that then? Some kind of transponder which the 4x4 picks up and shows you on their satnav?

h..

Yes, I think I read that's exactly what it is, shows up on the dash, could be handy to spot bikes coming up the inside, especially as looking in the nearside mirror before moving off isn't a normal driving practice.

Only of use if (of course) the transponder is tiny and passive and free, to be built into helmets, shoes or maybe bonded to saddles..

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