Product Design:
The Ziggy
The Challenge: Design a multifunctional backpack that can turn into a tote and vice-versa with efficiency and aesthetics
The Solution: The Ziggy is a convertible backpack-tote made of a vegetable-tanned leather, featuring a pair of over-the-shoulder straps that are pull through one side of the bag in a single, fluid move to become a backpack.
Client
Life on Mars Goods
Designer
Jamie Ramsay
Time Frame
3 years
Skills
Research, Ideation, Patternmaking, Botanical Dyeing, Sewing, Bag Construction, Marketing
Tools & Methods
Secondary Research, User Interviews, Comparative/Competitive Analysis, Photoshop, Prototyping, Usability Testing
The Context
In 2017, I started a leather goods company called Life on Mars Goods. The mission was to encourage sustainability by providing long-lasting, functional bags that were rooted in nature by materials. By creating bags that could serve multiple purposes, endure, and eventually get passed on or biodegrade/compost, I could offer an alternative to plastic pollution, toxic production methods and fast fashion waste.
As a former competitive athlete, who traveled quite often, I gravitated toward travel bag design. It was a world I knew well and one that I had ruminated on extensively. Having to travel with cumbersome and heavy sports equipment, taking computers in and out, also being a photographer who often carried camera equipment in addition to roller skates, pads, helmets, etc., I product tested quite a few bags in my lifetime. And I spent countless hours waiting in airport lounges discussing their merits and shortcomings with teammates. I observed how people used bags on trains and packed them in overheads.
The humble fanny pack inspired Life on Mars’ first design: a leather hip pack that allowed easy access to passports, wallets, keys. But I had my sights on something larger. I needed an all-purpose bag that could carry a change of clothes, my laptop, maybe the essential items that filled flight time: headphones, journals, books, laptop. A shoulder tote seemed the most convenient bag. But a tote is not hands-free while dragging a checked roller bag. Sometimes the contents of the tote get too heavy for a shoulder and hauling them backpack-style is more efficient. I wanted a bag that could do both, and as I found, I was not the only one.
The problem for me was that a vast majority of convertible backpack-totes feature straps that dangle uselessly depending on the method of carry. It was irritating (and as someone short, sometimes hazardous) having superfluous straps flopping, as was a detachable strap that needed reconnecting to convert the bag. Therefore, I assigned myself a design challenge: find a way to make a backpack turn tote and vice-versa in the simplest, most efficient way possible.
After researching many different existing designs, I had an aha moment while testing endless paper iterations and sketches. I named the solution The Ziggy, homage to the fluid-form, human-presenting alien rockstar Ziggy Stardust, alter ego of David Bowie and the muse for my company. The Ziggy is a convertible backpack-tote featuring a pair of traditional, over-the-shoulder straps that are pull through one side of the bag in a single, fluid move to become a backpack.
The design has gone through several iterations since it first took shape in 2019, based on my own product testing, feedback from clients and bespoke orders. While I am always considering tweaks, I settled on a consistent design in 2022. In its current form, The Ziggy is one of Life on Mars’ top-requested bags that consistently sells out almost as quickly as I produce them in my small-scale production studio.
Research Goals
I sought answers to these questions:
What are people’s larger EDC (Every Day Carry)?
Backpack or Tote?
Is there a perfect carry-all?
How do we streamline the travel bag?
How can we get more functionality from one bag?
Is there room for innovation to the classic tote?
Testing & Iterations
Although the mechanism of conversion from tote to backpack remained largely the same from my first inspiration for it, the bag that I built around those straps went through several iterations to support them. From a structural standpoint, the temper of the leather used played a large role. I conducted my own diary study with the first version that I tested on trips and for everyday carry. Regular clients provided me feedback from the early versions and I talked to them about improvements. As I interviewed users, I also discovered the sizing needed some changing, especially after 2020, when fewer folks commuted with their laptops.
A few of the design iterations are discussed below:
Feedback: Bag body did not retain a square structure
Iteration: After carrying the original prototype for a few months, the bag was not retaining a stiff, boxed shape. Due to the way the corners were sewn using “crushed corners”, it accommodated a large carry capacity but did not retain a convenient square shape as a backpack. I altered the construction and sewing as well as employed a stiffer leather to retain a more boxy shape.
Feedback: Not sufficiently secure for commuters
Iteration: For quick convenience, the original prototype had a snap closure. I experimented with a few different placements of the snap as well as a fold-over tab that snapped. Feedback from customers was that they loved zipper bags in any backpack, as it was more secure during train commutes. I also adding a zipper top would make it more under-seat friendly on airplanes.
Feedback: Pocket design needs to reflect use-case
Iteration: Early on the Ziggy went through a few versions of cotton linings and a few versions without any lining. Linings allowed for more pocket options and clients repeated requested zippered pockets on the inside (see above). Therefore, all current Ziggys lined to accommodate secure pockets.
Conversely, having a non-zippered exterior pocket was a feature clients preferred for phone access and storage. So I changed the exterior zippered pocket to an open pocket that was larger to accommodate a smartphone.
Feedback: Folks downsized since 2020
Iteration: Prior to the 2020 when more people commuted to work, carrying computers, a 14” size bag was almost universally requested. Perhaps due to more working from home, perhaps in part to downsizing “stuff” in general with inflation, I’ve had more inquiries for smaller sizes of the Ziggy, so in 2021, I added a Ziggy Mini which was slightly smaller at 12”.
Next Steps
Iterate and test bottom-reinforcement options
Offer versions in plant-based, leather substitutes
Pursue limited-run manufacture
Develop padded pockets for digital devicees
Continue to release special-edition and collaboration versions like the Ziggy Burma which featured handwoven panels created by women weavers in Burma
Ziggy Burma Special Edition featured panels handwoven by women artisans in Burma. Each bag was one-of-a-kind
Reflections
Design happens concurrent with culture. Sometimes what is going on with society creeps into something as innocuous as the size of bags folks carry.
Even the simplest, most classic forms have room for innovation.
It’s really exciting to see be able to see users benefit from Human-Centered Design so immediately and directly. When I heard certain feedback from a number of clients, and then implemented it, I would often hear positive comments regarding utility from new clients regarding that very same design change. Witnessing real-world application of the design process is inspiring.
“My brain hurt like a warehouse
it had no room to spare
I had to cram so many things
to store everything in there”
— “Five Years” by David Bowie