Carl Demolder | Portfolio

A business and design proposal to develop magnetic ski bindings as an alternative to latch-and-spring based bindings. Current ski bindings today cause a large number of injuries as more than 70,000 skiers each year tear their ACL while skiing. Most of these injuries can be targeted towards poor binding tension calibration. Additionally latch-and-spring bindings create difficulties for skiers to put back on their skies after falling on the slopes. 

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Our solution was the development of magnetic ski bindings that through the press of a button lock or unlock. By aligning coupled magnets, the boot can be locked into the ski deck. Additionally, when the magnets are not aligned, the boot is unlocked from the ski deck and can be removed. This novel solution prevents knee injuries by allowing the knee and boot to pivot to prevent injury while remaining locked into the bindings. Additionally, the user can easily lock their boots into the ski deck by using the magnetic force attraction. A market analysis, swot analysis, and customer interviews were used to analysis the market and determine key customer's values and proper price points.