JumpFlex came to Design Smart with some well-advanced new concepts for a new series of trampolines now known as the Hero series of tramps which have been commercially available since 2023.
These new concepts for this series of tramps went through several iterations. They settled on a specific feature for these new concept trampolines. This significant single feature had the benefit of no metal welding required during manufacture, but also it had the added benefit of no assembly tools being required by the end user.
To enable this new concept of no welds and virtually no assembly tools required, we introduced several plastic part mouldings to the design. JumpFlex had had little experience with plastic part design, which is where Design Smart added significant value. In particular we added our extensive experience to the new Ladder design. They wanted the Ladder to become a marketing statement for this new series of trampolines. A 3rd party Industrial Design company had proposed an impractical design concept for this Ladder which composed of numerous plastic components. Their concept would not only have been tricky (hence expensive) to mould but would have also produced a dubious result when in use. To have gone down this path would have been a very expensive exercise and would have produced a disappointing result. This is a perfect example of how some serious design experience can save an awful lot of time and money while producing a much better end result. Design Smart came up with a design that produced the main plastic Ladder Cover in one single piece of plastic as opposed to the 13 individual parts (including 7 unique mouldings) that had initially been proposed by an inexperienced design house.
This project illustrates clearly just what can be achieved with the intelligent use of plastics to improve the appearance / appeal of a product. See the attached images of these new products including the original design proposal for the Ladder and the end result.
