 Hi fellow outdoor enthusiasts
I’m currently in the process of writing my master thesis with a fellow student at the Technical University of Denmark.
The project is about involving users in the development process of developing of outdoor equipment. More precisely, we will develop equipment for tent usage.
Our goal is to get people in to talk about outdoor life and what makes it special. What completes the experience and how does the equipment contribute to the experience? We are both outdoor enthusiast event though we haven't climbed Mount Everest... jet! We have initially prepared a small survey that we hope you are willing to fill out. It only takes approx. 5 minutes and is more general questions about outdoor life. It can be found by following the link. Survey about outdoor living You are also allowed to come up with some of your thoughts about, how you see the outdoor equipment should be like in the furture. Both the extreme thoughts and the more realistics. Last how do you see that the users could be involved in contributing to the development of outdoor equipment? Thank you !
Jacob Pedersen and Martin Enemark
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| Edited: 29/09/11 10:50 |
 Done! One of the better thought-out surveys on this forum. Short and relatively painless.
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 Agree with Paddy. Good luck with the thesis, guys 
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Thanks for your response it really helped a lot for for the amount of participators. The servey wasn't not meant to be painful but short and easy. Instead we get a lot replies and E-mail addresses that we hope we can contact later in the project, when we will start on some more qualitative activities. and last if someone has a brilliant idea about how to involve users in a creative way in the development process they are more than welcome to contribute.
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If you want to know more about hiking/backpacking with small kids you can contact me by my profile. I was the one who mentioned a hiking vacation along the Haervejen.
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 I'd really love a time machine so I could nip forward 100 years and buy that ProAction 1g dehydrated tent, and the latest Eurohike rucksack with the anti-gravity straps. Mark my words, these are the future brands to watch  Seriously though, it will be interesting to hear people's thoughts on where outdoor kit is heading. How users could help? Well, it would be great to have some kind of crowd sourced comparison site, but with technical info. I've no idea at all how that might work, but I like the idea of having a mass of opinions on gear to help me decide rather than one magazine review and the odd blog or forum post.
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 The future? Clothing. One single layer of clothing that you adjust to whatever insulation level you require. Shelter. A single layer, actually breathable fabric that will hold whatever tension is needed for the current conditions. No poles needed. When? Ask the military.
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If you want to know more about hiking/backpacking with small kids you can contact me by my profile. I was the one who mentioned a hiking vacation along the Haervejen. Hi Zuma thanks for your servey answer. we would be very interesed to know more about hiking/backpacking with small kids because we will probably focus on family outdoor activities later on in the project. I will contact later in the project.
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Hi Mike. Thanks fore your ideas. I will call the military now if you got a number I can borrow?
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 What it ought to be like in a science-fiction future is a good game. If you could get up to the level of, say, Iain Banks' "Culture" novels you could pretty much have anything you wanted, including being displaced to mountain summits with no effort at all. That brings in interesting questions like how much do you want to do yourself, where you have a free choice not to. But the more immediate future, I think we'll have increasingly good options that increase breathability while remaining waterproof, quite possibly by altering their structure according to conditions (not new in itself, Ventile's being doing that for decades). Mike's multi-insulation will make some steps too, I think. Schoeller's "Outlast" was a start, absorbing heat when it's warm and releasing it when it's cold, and adding in structural change properties should help. Pete.
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 For children I would like outdoor footwear (walking boots, cross country ski boots) that last more than 2 months before they grow out of them 
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I sense a "marketing" opportunity for the (genuinely) Barefoot Brigade...
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Mike's multi-insulation will make some steps too, I think. Schoeller's "Outlast" was a start, absorbing heat when it's warm and releasing it when it's cold, You're right about the Sci-Fi element, Pete, they have clothes that do that in some of the Star Trek novels 
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 There are Star Trek novels...? That people read 
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er... yes.
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Hi I would just remind you guys that my main intention with this tread was to get some answers on our online survey (Survey on outdoor living). Hope there are more of you guys out there that are willing the answer it. Furthermore... we kinda have an internal competition about what survey that will get most answers. The English or the Danish that we posted on a similar Danish site (outsite.org) Right now the Danish suvery is the leading one which is kinda embarrassing for you guys since we are only 5 million people in Denmark and there are about 4 or 5 billion people in the world that speak English ... not that I expect that they all are in here. Good luck
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Hi guys I'm Martins thesis partner. Interesting thoughts you have come up with so far! A lot of the suggestions/ideas are rooted in improving materials with regards to breathability/durability while at the same time being able to minimise layers. Good stuff, and I agree with you that this is probably the way things will be going in the future. Do you have any insights/forecasts/predictions/prophecies on more radical future outdoor gear in terms of functionality? What trends do you see emerging? Is it SDUL (Super Duper Ultra Light) gear, hover tech, or what?  Shoot!
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 > Ask the military. There aren't many areas where military research is cutting edge technology these days. Certainly not electronics, where consumer is king, and all military kit uses obsolete electronics on its first day in service (a simple consequence of procurement/development timescales compared to the rate of advance in electronics). I doubt if the military are at the bleeding edge of fabric research, either. > Mike's multi-insulation will make some steps too, I think. Schoeller's "Outlast" was a start, absorbing heat when it's warm and releasing it when it's cold Outlast wasn't Schoeller, and it wasn't very good, in my limited experience of it. Are you getting confused with C-Change? > Furthermore... we kinda have an internal competition about what survey that will get most answers. The English or the Danish that we posted on a similar Danish site (outsite.org) Feeble attempt to start nationalistic competition has just put me off... Good luck with that.
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Right now the Danish suvery is the leading one which is kinda embarrassing for you guys since we are only 5 million people in Denmark Only 5 million? Well in that case I must have met them all... in Greenland and Iceland... over the past couple of years. At least, I've met a helluva lot of them.
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