In 2017, Adidas made waves by building the first shoe with a 3D-printed midsole. Oechsler’s Trekking Backpack is bringing that game-changing technology to a new domain. Bags and shoes have quite a few areas of overlap. They’re both designed to take on load, and are built for comfort… so it only makes sense that innovative tech in the footwear industry make its way to the backpack industry. It seems like that’s finally happening, with Oechsler’s Red Dot Design Concept Award-winning Trekking Backpack. Although rather simply named, the pack comes with a unique additively-printed TPU lattice structure that helps provide a cushioning surface between the bag’s back panel and the human carrying it. Designed to be ergonomic, lightweight, and use lesser material than an actual cushion, this unique detail uses a special Ultrasint® TPU01 material that “provides strong, flexible, and ultra-durable part performance while maintaining excellent surface quality”.

“Thanks to the design flexibility enabled by 3D printing, the back pads and hip fins can be produced in a single piece out of one material. This significantly reduces assembly steps, time and cost”, say the designers at Oechsler, a Germany-based polymer innovation company. “The printed part no longer requires gluing or sewing. Moreover, unprocessed powder gets fully reused in subsequent print jobs and printed parts are 100% recyclable at the end of their lifecycles.”

The Trekking Backpack is a winner of the Red Dot Design Concept Award for the year 2022.

Designer: OECHSLER AG