Designworks Collaborates with The North Face to Imagine New Camper Concept
- Phil Diianni
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Nicola Green
Designworks, a BMW Group Company
Las Vegas, NV – January 8, 2019... In Las Vegas today, BMW Group subsidiary Designworks unveiled a new camper concept and virtual reality experience, in partnership with The North Face, to imagine the future of protection from the elements.
The lightweight camper concept and virtual experience were designed by Designworks to showcase a new fabric innovation from The North Face called FUTURELIGHT™, which uses Nanospinning technology to create the world’s most advanced, breathable, waterproof material.
“We combined both physical and digital worlds to showcase this material, ensuring the holistic vision of the brand was clearly communicated, while giving people a real ‘hands-on’ experience,” said Laura Robin, Designworks LA Studio Director. “Thinking about extreme performance in new and unexpected ways from our experience of working across multiple industries, helped us to provide consumers with a unique and never before seen insight into the very heart of the material and its key attributes.”
The FUTURELIGHT camper was inspired by the 2008 BMW GINA Light Visionary Model concept car. Like the GINA Concept, the FUTURELIGHT™ Camper is made of a fabric outer shell, consisting of a flexible material stretched over an iconic geodesic dome to demonstrate the potential uses of FUTURELIGHT™ fabric beyond just apparel.
The revolutionary Nanospinning process used to create FUTURELIGHT™, has allowed the The North Face designers to add air permeability into the membrane of a fabric for the first time. The process creates nano-sized holes, allowing for incredible porosity while still maintaining total waterproofness, letting air move through the material and provide more venting than ever before.
The FUTURELIGHT™ Camper, is on display during the global consumer electronics tradeshow, by invite-only Jan. 7 – Jan. 11 in Las Vegas. FUTURELIGHT™ will first become available to consumers in The North Face Fall 2019 product line and will be featured across the brand’s pinnacle performance collections.
About Designworks, a BMW Group Company
Designworks, a BMW Group Company, is a global creative consultancy offering services which foster innovation and business growth for companies worldwide. Using cross-industry knowledge and experience, its culture of innovation and future-focused approach catalyzes its passion for visionary design.
Designworks leverages the power of BMW Group’s culture of innovation and cutting edge design to advance the goals of its external clients, including John Deere, Virgin Hyperloop One, Siemens, Corsair, HP, Microsoft, Embraer and Singapore Airlines, whilst bringing outside perspectives and impulses to the BMW Group through knowledge and experience gained with client engagements.
www.bmwgroupdesignworks.com
BMW Group in the United States.
BMW of North America, LLC was established 50 years ago to support the sales, marketing and distribution of BMW automobiles and motorcycles in the U.S. In 1993 BMW Group Financial Services NA, LLC was founded, and one year later BMW Manufacturing Co., LLC began assembling vehicles in South Carolina. In 2002 and 2003, BMW Group established MINI USA, and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars NA, LLC relaunching two iconic brands and rounding out its product portfolio.
Today, the BMW Group has a nationwide corporate footprint in the U.S. which consists of nearly 30 locations in 12 different states. Beyond the National Sales Company and Financial Services headquarters in Woodcliff Lake, NJ, its manufacturing plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and numerous other operational facilities, BMW Group in the U.S. also includes Designworks, a strategic design consultancy in Santa Monica, CA, BMW Group Technology Office USA, a technology research and development center in Silicon Valley, and BMW i Ventures, a venture capital fund, also in Silicon Valley.
BMW Group Plant Spartanburg is the largest single BMW production facility in the world, and the global center of competence for BMW Sports Activity Vehicles including the X3, X4, X5, X6, X7, and XM. The plant assembles more than 1,500 vehicles each day, and up to 450,000 annually. Since 1994, Plant Spartanburg has assembled nearly 7 million BMW vehicles in the U.S.
The BMW Group sales organization in the U.S. is represented through a network of 350 BMW retailers, 147 BMW motorcycle retailers, 104 MINI passenger car dealers, and 38 Rolls-Royce Motor Car dealers. The company’s activities provide and support over 120,000 jobs across the U.S. and contribute more than 43.3 billion to the U.S. economy annually.
Journalist note: Information about BMW Group and its products in the USA is available to journalists on-line at www.bmwusanews.com, www.miniusanews.com and www.press.bmwna.com
The lightweight camper concept and virtual experience were designed by Designworks to showcase a new fabric innovation from The North Face called FUTURELIGHT™, which uses Nanospinning technology to create the world’s most advanced, breathable, waterproof material.
“We combined both physical and digital worlds to showcase this material, ensuring the holistic vision of the brand was clearly communicated, while giving people a real ‘hands-on’ experience,” said Laura Robin, Designworks LA Studio Director. “Thinking about extreme performance in new and unexpected ways from our experience of working across multiple industries, helped us to provide consumers with a unique and never before seen insight into the very heart of the material and its key attributes.”
The FUTURELIGHT camper was inspired by the 2008 BMW GINA Light Visionary Model concept car. Like the GINA Concept, the FUTURELIGHT™ Camper is made of a fabric outer shell, consisting of a flexible material stretched over an iconic geodesic dome to demonstrate the potential uses of FUTURELIGHT™ fabric beyond just apparel.
The revolutionary Nanospinning process used to create FUTURELIGHT™, has allowed the The North Face designers to add air permeability into the membrane of a fabric for the first time. The process creates nano-sized holes, allowing for incredible porosity while still maintaining total waterproofness, letting air move through the material and provide more venting than ever before.
The FUTURELIGHT™ Camper, is on display during the global consumer electronics tradeshow, by invite-only Jan. 7 – Jan. 11 in Las Vegas. FUTURELIGHT™ will first become available to consumers in The North Face Fall 2019 product line and will be featured across the brand’s pinnacle performance collections.
About Designworks, a BMW Group Company
Designworks, a BMW Group Company, is a global creative consultancy offering services which foster innovation and business growth for companies worldwide. Using cross-industry knowledge and experience, its culture of innovation and future-focused approach catalyzes its passion for visionary design.
Designworks leverages the power of BMW Group’s culture of innovation and cutting edge design to advance the goals of its external clients, including John Deere, Virgin Hyperloop One, Siemens, Corsair, HP, Microsoft, Embraer and Singapore Airlines, whilst bringing outside perspectives and impulses to the BMW Group through knowledge and experience gained with client engagements.
www.bmwgroupdesignworks.com
BMW Group in the United States.
BMW of North America, LLC was established 50 years ago to support the sales, marketing and distribution of BMW automobiles and motorcycles in the U.S. In 1993 BMW Group Financial Services NA, LLC was founded, and one year later BMW Manufacturing Co., LLC began assembling vehicles in South Carolina. In 2002 and 2003, BMW Group established MINI USA, and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars NA, LLC relaunching two iconic brands and rounding out its product portfolio.
Today, the BMW Group has a nationwide corporate footprint in the U.S. which consists of nearly 30 locations in 12 different states. Beyond the National Sales Company and Financial Services headquarters in Woodcliff Lake, NJ, its manufacturing plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and numerous other operational facilities, BMW Group in the U.S. also includes Designworks, a strategic design consultancy in Santa Monica, CA, BMW Group Technology Office USA, a technology research and development center in Silicon Valley, and BMW i Ventures, a venture capital fund, also in Silicon Valley.
BMW Group Plant Spartanburg is the largest single BMW production facility in the world, and the global center of competence for BMW Sports Activity Vehicles including the X3, X4, X5, X6, X7, and XM. The plant assembles more than 1,500 vehicles each day, and up to 450,000 annually. Since 1994, Plant Spartanburg has assembled nearly 7 million BMW vehicles in the U.S.
The BMW Group sales organization in the U.S. is represented through a network of 350 BMW retailers, 147 BMW motorcycle retailers, 104 MINI passenger car dealers, and 38 Rolls-Royce Motor Car dealers. The company’s activities provide and support over 120,000 jobs across the U.S. and contribute more than 43.3 billion to the U.S. economy annually.
Journalist note: Information about BMW Group and its products in the USA is available to journalists on-line at www.bmwusanews.com, www.miniusanews.com and www.press.bmwna.com