Care to Air Design Challenge Winner - What do you think? Would you use it?
On June 1st of this year, Levi Strauss & Co. issued a design challenge. It wasn’t a fashion thing; no one was being asked to design a prom dress made entirely from jeans (and really, thank god for that). It was an eco thing.
The premise was this: Levis had determined (by hiring a third-party life cycle assessment firm) that almost 60% of the climate impact of Levis jeans comes during the consumer phase, and nearly 80% of that is from using a clothes dryer. In order to reduce its carbon footprint and build sustainability into the Levis product, the company issued the Care to Air Design Challenge, a challenge intended to find “the world’s most innovative, covetable, and sustainable air-drying solution for clothing.” Winners to divvy up $10,000 in prizes.
I bring this to you here on SG for one reason: there is absolutely no way on earth I believe that anyone would have invented the winning design if not for the extremely specific constraints Levis placed on the entrants: it should be innovative, it should be eco-friendly, it should be covetable, it should be beautiful.
I mean yeah: it’s not like we don’t all know how to air-dry our jeans. For $1.50 an a trip to the local hardware store, you can get yourself a piece of clothesline, right? It’s not like this challenge was about inventing a previously nonexistent solution. It was about finding a way to do it that just might be cool enough to convince people to use it. And sometimes, that’s all our most creative ideas are.
We don’t need to reinvent the wheel here, people. Just the clothesline.
It should be noted that many far more, well, let’s just call them technological designs were entered, and some of them got some recognition and prize money. But the top two prizes both went to designs that were simple, beautiful, and elegant.
Julie Green is owner, operator, designer, sales staff, and head of the shipping department at Up Up Creative, an 
Not only is the winner simple and elegant, but so is your writing. This is such an important thing to remember…innovation doesn’t have to be complex and difficult. The best innovation is indeed simple and elegant. Thanks for such a nice post.
Oh, thanks so much, Lisa. You’re kind. I’m glad you enjoyed it. I’m loving writing this new column.
And, even if you don’t have a beautiful air dryer like this one, you can still do your part for the world. USE your clothesline! I love to hang my clothes outside. In fact I just did!
Wow! This is absolutely fantastic, beautiful and very inspiring. I see a spot, on my deck where I could hang clothes. Off to the hardware store. Thanks for this post….I needed a reminder.
I will say…I like it BECAUSE it is compact and simple. I live in Arizona and we have cactus to hang clothesline from not trees (obviously I am being a little faciscous).
Being serious now…the only thing that is missing though is the sun. Drying clothes inside is great, but I do love that warmth and smell that can only come from sun drying.
Cody
I absolutely LOVE this! Once we have our own place again I want to either make one or buy one. It wasn’t until I lived in Scotland for nearly 3 years that I learned to actually enjoy air drying my clothes. Now that we are back in the US I use air drying maybe half of the time, but need to discipline myself to make it all the time again (except maybe for towels – I did miss fluffy towels!) Thanks for sharing this great “invention.”