Care to Air Design Challenge
The Care to Air Design Challenge seeks the world’s most innovative, covetable, and sustainable air-drying solution for clothing. At stake? $10,000 in prize money from Levi Strauss & Co., the challenge sponsor - to be distributed among the finalists - in addition to an audience with our distinguished panel of judges:
- Dave Bolotsky, Founder and CEO of UncommonGoods
- Doug Sweeny, Vice President of Marketing for the Levi’s® Brand
- Eric Ryan, Co-Founder and Chief Brand Architect at Method Products, Inc.
- Paul Bradley, Executive Creative Director at Frog Design
- Zem Joaquin, Founder and CEO of EcoFabulous
Why Care?
Your favorite pair of jeans consumes energy throughout its life cycle, giving this fashion staple a carbon footprint. A complete third party lifecycle assessment on a pair of Levi’s® 501® jeans revealed that, on average, almost 60% of the climate impact comes during the consumer phase. Nearly 80% of that is due to the energy intensive method we choose for drying. Levi Strauss & Co. is taking strides to bring its carbon footprint down to zero and build sustainability into everything they do – but the LCA revealed that the company needs help from consumers to make the biggest difference.
The most effective way to reduce the climate impact of a pair of jeans is to air dry, yet the average US household chooses a dryer. Some communities have even banned clotheslines, calling them unsightly. Well Levi Strauss & Co. would like to challenge that point of view by finding clothesline designs or other innovative air drying solutions that are undeniably stylish, sustainable and effective.
To find out more details about entrance requirements and the judging criteria, please click on the full brief tab. You can also download the challenge brief and rules here (PDF).
Congratulations to the first and second prize winners, decided August 16th at a live judging event in San Francisco.
You'll also see below the remaining finalists, as well as two designs from our outstanding community contributors. These two community members were invaluable in providing feedback and improving their competitors designs throughout the competition. To recognize their outstanding collaboration and commitment to surfacing the best air drying solutions, they are both receiving $500 as the top community contributors.
The winners
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$4500 First Prize
1 3This is a concept for an affordable, easy to use, aesthetically pleasing, undercover fold out drying rack.
chill · Aug 16, 2010
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$1500 Second Prize
8 5The Evaporation Station is an Air drying solution for an urban environment. Made from nesting stainless steel pieces this air-dryer hangs up your wet socks and cuts...
jeffm · Aug 16, 2010
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$500 Finalist
11 3HANG ANYWHERE is a call to action: part product design, part revolution, part innovative ARIA suction cord.
The Way We See the World · Aug 03, 2010
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$1500 Finalist- Crowd Favorite
464 16Drying is built on the principle of quick drying clothes in the wind. It is small in size (may be collapsible).
mr_andrey · Aug 03, 2010
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$500 Finalist - Crowd Pick
451 42Levitower is a structure which creates draughts inside of itself in order to dry our laundry.
Gediminas · Aug 03, 2010
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$500 Finalist - Crowd Pick
344 84The Strauss Spin N Dry is an eco-friendly & sustainable-manually operated drying system, that uses free renewable resources sunlight & air. The entire structure...
Jay Zapata · Aug 03, 2010
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$500 Top Community Collaborator
8 5Cirrus reinvents the traditional drying rack as a greywater recycling system sustaining an indoor, vertical garden of non-edible plant species. Plants, packaged...
luft · Aug 03, 2010
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$500 Top Community Collaborator
37 35The Einspine Drying Line is a clever and fun solution that saves time and money as it uses only natural resources. Drying clothes on hangers also saves time as they...
docruss · Aug 03, 2010
What
In partnership with the Myoo Create community, Levi Strauss & Co. is running a competition for designers everywhere to respond to the challenge of how to design the world’s most innovative, covetable and sustainable air-drying solution for clothing. They’re offering prize money for the most effective solutions, as well as an audience with experienced designers and eco-innovators.
How to enter
The challenge will be open for entries on Myoo Create starting June 1st, 2010. In order to enter, you must first create an account at Myoo Create. Then submit the following information:
- Upload an image representing your design
- Provide a 200 word description to accompany the image, including how your design meets the judging criteria outlined below
- Upload a three page design specification, with more details on the design, scalability and environmental attributes of your design.
The detailed challenge rules are available here (PDF).
Judging criteria
The judges will evaluate entries according to the following criteria:
- Aesthetics: some communities perceive line drying to be unsightly and unappealing – that's why they've banned outdoor line drying. So is there a way to make line drying or other air drying solutions more aesthetically pleasing?
- Scalability: does the design solution have the potential for widespread adoption? We really do believe that air drying is an important part of a climate neutral tomorrow, so we are seeking solutions with potential for mass adoption in urban and rural environments.
- Environmental sustainability:designs will be expected to have their own sustainable life cycle in terms of materials use, production process, and end of life. Let’s try and avoid solving one problem but creating another.
- Ingenuity: the clothesline and clothes pin is a tried and tested solution with a myriad of different designs already on the market. It’s going to take some out of the box thinking to get beyond our current reality to find something brand new that could be widely adopted. So we’ll reward ingenuity in our judging.
Challenge timetable & process
Open to Entries & Voting: June 1st- July 31st
The Challenge is open to entries from 00:00:00 Pacific Time (PT) on 01 June 2010 until 23:59:59 PT on 31 July 2010. During this time, Myoo Create community members may vote on the entries and provide feedback and comments.
Once the voting period ends, the top three ranked entries as well as two (update: now three!) judges' picks will be announced as the designs entering in to the finals.
The awards for the Crowd Favorite and the Most Valuable Community Member will be announced at this time.
Finals: August 16th, 2010
The five (update, now six!) finalists will be invited to participate in an event where they present their design to our judging panel. The event will be in San Francisco. Finalists can attend in person at their own cost, or by live video link. The winners will be announced at the event.
Prizes
All five (update: now 6!) finalists will receive $500 for advancing to the judging round. The prizes for the winning designs are:
- 1st Prize $4,500
- 2nd prize $1500
- Crowd Favorite: $1000 (for the top-ranked entry based on community voting)
There is also $500 available for the Most Valuable Community Member.
Most Valuable Myoo Create Member
We believe that collaboration is at least as important as competition in stimulating breakthrough innovation. Even if you are not a designer or do not have an entry, you can still participate and help find a solution. To encourage collaboration between community members, we are offering a $500 prize for the Most Valuable Myoo Create Member. The prize will be awarded to the community member who, in the opinion of the judges, provides the most valuable feedback on the challenge entries. Anyone is eligible for this prize – all you need to do is join in the conversation and contribute useful ideas and feedback on the entries.
Entry criteria
There is no limit on the number of entries each entrant can submit.
The competition is open to entries from around the world, but you may not enter into the Challenge if entry is prohibited or restricted by any laws in the jurisdiction in which you’re located.
You must be at least 16 years old on June 1st, 2010, to enter the Challenge. If you are younger than 18, your parent or guardian must consent to you entering this Challenge based on the Challenge Rules. In the event that you are a winner of the Challenge we will require a signed consent from your parent or guardian.
IMPORTANT: please read the detailed Challenge Rules to make sure your entry meets our requirements. Non-compliance may result in disqualification.
About the challenge
Levi Strauss & Co. is focused on building sustainability into everything they do including bringing the company’s carbon footprint down to zero. While examining the lifecycle impact of a pair of Levi’s® 501®’s, they were surprised to find that almost 60% of the climate impact happens in the laundry phase – after a consumer takes them home - and 80% of that impact is due to the energy intensive method we choose for drying. You can find more information on the life cycle of a jean here.
The single most important step we can all take to reduce the climate impact of our jeans is to choose air drying. Energy from the sun and the wind is free, as opposed to the average clothes dryer, which is the second biggest energy-using appliance in the home after the refrigerator. Despite all this, the majority of US households do not use air drying methods, and communities in the US are even banning outdoor clothes lines because they say they look unsightly. The Levi’s® brand would like to challenge that point of view by finding clothesline designs or other innovative air drying techniques that are undeniably stylish and effective.
Contact us
Please contact us with any questions info@myoocreate.com.Please Log in or Join now to write a comment.
44 comments in the discussion
adminwritten 30 days ago
@WillP- Hi Will. Glad you enjoyed yourself while helping create more sustainable ways to line-dry! We definitely have our thinking caps on about how to improve the voting structure and process, so thank you so much for your feedback. We will take your ideas into consideration for future challenges. Every challenge we run teaches us new things and we are always open to more suggestions. Keep them coming!
adminwritten 30 days ago
@Contemplaytion- Hi Dave, as we tried to explain earlier, it would have been unfair to other contestants because we bent the rules for you and not for others. I sincerely hope you can understand this. Had you entered your idea before the very last day, we would have left a comment on your entry urging you to upload an image before the contest closed. Unfortunately, there is nothing more we can do and we stand by our decision.
tarunkantwritten 30 days ago
Was this some kind of Joke?
WillPwritten about 1 month ago
Hi Admin, thanks for running the competition, it has been fun competing but just thought I would pass on some suggestions as to how to make it better next time. The (very interesting) premise of the website is to promote collaboration in solving problems, there is some evidence of this but think it could be improved... possibly with something like this? 1, Members have 1 month or so to submit designs/proposals and for the community to give feedback and comments. 2, There is then a second window of 3 weeks or so for "collaboration" submissions. Only members who have entered proposals in the first stage can submit and they must either be a collaboration with someone who submitted in the first stage or a new iteration of their idea following a comment from the community. The community member who made the comment would also be rewarded if the submission wins. The submissions from both stages would then be judged by the competition organisers. There would be NO voting from the community itself as this will always be open to manipulation - which is unfortunately massively obvious from this competition (and quite demotivating). Hope this is useful.. Looking forward to the next one!
contemplaytionwritten about 1 month ago
I don't want to be that, "disgruntled complainer guy" but exactly how would this be unfair? If I had more time than other submitters, THAT would be unfair! If I had a personal relationship with a judge, THAT would be unfair! If my submission was accepted without submitting a visual image and verbal description, THAT would be unfair! If my submission lacked in substance ANY of the things needed to properly evaluate it, I would concede to your point but that's not the case at all. MYOO disqualified me on the basis of a small formality, (not posting the picture next to the submission title), that had absolutely nothing to do with the spirit and meaning of the competition. It was unintentional and afforded me NO advantage over any other submitter. I just wish instead of making the effort to write me a well thought out response on why my submission was disqualified that you instead sent me a head's up, (like you did for X-Aria)saying, "Hey Dave" nice submission, but can you shoot us another image of your design real quick so we don't have to disqualify you for something so trivial & unimportant? Sorry for the tone but I did put put a great deal of time and effort into my concept for nothing.
adminwritten about 1 month ago
@Contemplaytion- Hi Dave. You should be receiving an email shortly about why your entry was disqualified. We regret that we had to delete your entry; it looked very well though out. However, it would have been unfair to all of the other contestants who were able to fulfill the entry requirements before the deadline. We agree that the spirit of the competition is to promote ccreative and thoughtful solutions, but we also recognize that if we made an exception for you, we would have to make an exception for many others.
adminwritten about 1 month ago
@katystreet- The finalists have been announced! Please view the winners tab and see the latest blog post about our top Community Contributors.
contemplaytionwritten about 1 month ago
I just received a very disconcerting E-mail from Valerie Yep notifying me that my, “care to air” design challenge submission was disqualified because I was not able to get my image to post next to the submission name, (I tried but it just wouldn’t display). I was however, able to load my PDF images and 200 word description, well within the deadline (and yes, it opened and could be viewed when you “clicked” on it). When dealing with local & federal governments we sort of ‘expect’ red tape and bureaucracy to take priority over substance & meaning but as part of the creative community we hope that a technical formality, (that provides no unfair advantage), does not prevail over the true spirit of this competition which was to present thoughtful, creative solutions to an important environmental concern. Whether or not my submission was well recieved or dismissed, I regret that MYOO chose to prevent the judges from evaluating it based on something so trivial & insignificant. ~ Dave
katystreetwritten about 1 month ago
When/how do you expect to announce the finalists?
Rebecca Petzelwritten about 1 month ago
Hi tomberkul. Appreciate your concern. Tomorrow we will be looking in to all the entries to be sure all rules were followed throughout the contest and verify, before finalizing the crowd favorite and finalists on Monday.
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A sculptural air funnel that catches air and hides the clothes.
freneticmind · Aug 01, 2010
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This is a concept for an affordable, easy to use, aesthetically pleasing, undercover fold out drying rack.
chill · Aug 16, 2010
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The gravity solar wind dryer's main objective is to dry the clothes as quickly as possible, without using energy and without producing carbon foot prints.The clothes...
hotstud671 · Jul 31, 2010
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simple can be made of a single sheet of plywood, a single wire, or a thin sheet of metal.
RSB002 · Jul 31, 2010
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Solar Powered air dryer for indoor use. Can be used in either single family homes or apartments.
dclarke · Jul 31, 2010
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The biggest complaint that people have with air drying is that your clothes end up "crunchy." Tackle the problem with a cup of safe, natural vinegar.
aggierandy · Jul 31, 2010
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The SpinDry drying system is an eco-friendly, energy generating system that takes the bore out of the chore and makes drying your clothes fun.
adamletherby · Jul 31, 2010
