Riutbag R15 (Secure Laptop Backpack) by Sarah Giblin
2015 - 2016, Platinum A' Fashion and Travel Accessories Design Award Winner

Inspiration
For years as a commuter I travelled alone between London and Berlin by train and plane. I was often concerned for the safety of my tech, passport and wallet. One day in the commuter crush, I wished my backpack were the other way round. I couldn't find this bag anywhere online. The idea wouldn't leave my mind. I sketched it out, saved up, left my job in March 2014 and crowdfunded my first production runs on Kickstarter. Now there are 4500 RiutBag users in the world travelling with peace of mind.

Creativity
RiutBag, pronounced "riot bag", is the backwards backpack for secure urban travel. RiutBag has revolved 180 degrees to place all access points safely against the user's back. Why? With a conventional backpack, the person behind us can access our belongings better than we can. That’s an unnerving design fault in our densely packed cities, bags packed full of tech. Now commuters and city travellers can travel anywhere with peace of mind. This revolution of the backpack allows us to adapt better to urban life.

Design Challenges
Rapid urban change is the greatest challenge to backpack design. The challenge is to adapt the urban backpack to meet them. Changing reliance on technology, new devices and new forms of technology which will arrive. My challenge: to design for users in ever changing urban environments so we can adapt, feeling comfort and peace of mind in our megacities, urban metropolises and as we move beyond planet earth to become multi-planetary.

Production Technology
All RiutBags are handmade at sewing machines by expert backpack stitchers. RiutBag main materials - Main body - 1000D waterproof black Cordura compounded with 1mm EVA Base - Thermoplastic polyurethane compounded with 2mm EVA Zips - YKK Laptop holder - 2mm Lycra Lining - waterproof nylon lining Pockets - mesh with YKK zips