Relieving Pressure Points with Cycling Pants

PROCESS

FALL 2014

CONTENTS: Background & Research

2

Prototypes

9

Final

18

BACKGROUND & RESEARCH

BACKGROUND: INTRODUCTION This project is based around a recreation program for paitents with spinal cord injuries at the University of Utah hospital. As a studio, we were asked to design new methods and systems for a better recreation experience.

After shadowing at the hospital and watching paraplegics use hand cycles to bike around in the park, I decided to focus my project around pressure sores.

RESEARCH: PRESSURE SORES Stage 4 sores expose both bone and muscle, resulting in multiple reconstructive surgeries as well as high risk of infection.

Preventing sores greatly improves quality of life.

Caused by:

Moisture Friction High risk areas

Pressure

BACKGROUND: MIDTERM Interview Spoke with TRAILS participants about their main issues and favorite parts of the bikes they use; spoke with OT members and a hospital paitent

Observation Watched TRAILS participants at Sugarhouse Park and saw how they clip their hands in and out, roll side to side to shift pressure, and stop

Online Forum Talked to 3 people in a reddit forum for spinal cord injuries, what rehab they do, and incorperating excercise into daily life

Timeline Saw the usage timelines for things like setting up a bike, transferring, and putting on gloves

Shadowing Followed OT therapist around for a day, talked about contact and pressure sores and issues with keeping paitents motivated and active

Research

Learned about pressure sores and how they are caused (friction, shearing, moisture, etc), as well as treatment and prevention methods

Movement Study Diagramed arm movements for full arm spans as well as isolated muscle groups

Product Comparison Memory foam, spiked foam and air cushions are all common ways to reduce pressure sores

Wrists can also get sores if sweat the the glove rub against the wristbone

Areas with little fat and muscle over bones are common places for sores to occur

Friction and sweat can still cause a sore risk, so a cushion might not be a good idea, but the shearing of the seat and sit bones is an issue

Lift Body Weight Unclip hands & lift body

Without grip or proper wrist movement, lifting while the handles can still swivel is difficult; a locking mechanism would reduce this issue

Pull Body Weight Develop a handle lock to allow one to pull up on handle bars without swivel

Cushion Body Weight Develop a spiked foam cushion

RESEARCH: WHY A PANT? After the midterm, it was apparent that some sort of cushioning was important to protect users from risking too much pressue on their sitbones during a ride, causing or worsening pressure ulcers. Initially, it seemed logical to make a cushion that would attach to the bike seat. However, almost all of the bikes are different, and so the cushions would have to be different for each bike. This would drive up the cost incredibly.

Instead, I realized instead of customizing a seat cushion to the bike, why not customize it to the user?

RESEARCH: FABRICS

PROTOTYPES

PROTOTPYE: ONE This was modeled from a sweatpant. The cut is very basic, and the padding has almost no shape to it. Overall, while it did show me how to attach the foam, it just seemed really bulky and heavy. It was also really shapeless, which I thought may have just been from the cheap fabric.

PROTOTPYE: TWO I chose a better fabric to see how that cut would work. Basically, it still looks really saggy and shapeless. The padding on this on was much smaller, to the point where it would not touch the sitbones. I realized I needed to figure out a balance between the pant shapeand the padding.

PROTOTPYE: THREE I continued to look at the proportions between the pant and the padding, but what I realized was that it was coming down to the bulkiness of the padding that was making these look so heavy and unattractive. I needed a padding shape that would look better.

PROTOTPYE: FOUR This prototype has a much better padding in it. However, as I was looking at it further, I realized there was a seam that went front to back (through the crotch) where a hotspot could easily be located.

PROTOTPYE: FIVE I started to examine how you can make a pair of pants without the standard front-to-back seam. Almost all pants have that seam, so making something structured without it was quite difficult.

PROTOTPYE: SIX I figured out a way to make the front and back sections without that middle seam by moving that seam and the shape it gives to the outside. This means you have to have a panel, but I worked with that.

PROTOTPYE: SEVEN At this point, I was looking at how to attach all the pieces I wanted together. I looked at different compression pant styles and chose one that I thought would work best.

PROTOTPYE: EIGHT This was almost finished! The waistband wasn’t structured and the ribbing that connected the lower leg section was too thin. The padding was also connected in a weird way that wouldn’t work as well.

FINAL

FINAL: WHY IT IS SUCCESSFUL low pressure elastic

customized padding

ergonomic custimized fit

seam above knee

breathable panels

optimized seams

Moisture Heavy weight lycra for warmth Light weight spandex-rayon blend for staying cool Both fabrics have moisture wicking properties

compression legging

Friction Seams have been optimized to reduce rubbing Compression legging reduces movement

Pressure The hotspot on the sitbones has been padded - this padding is customizable between 1/2� and 2�

FINAL: MANUFACTORING & COST Custom measurements need to be made for the padding and knee, but pattern could be cut in large amounts.

As a lot of the measurements are custom (especially for locating and protecting hotspots), these would be hand made.

+ Fabric @ $8/yard (bolt price), 3 yards + Elastic @ $2/yard (bulk price), 3/4 yard + Padding from $11- $30 yard, depending on weight + Manufactoring @ $10/hr, .5 hours

$41 - $70

FINAL: PRICE COMPS & COMPETETORS

prices range from

$39 - $110

FINAL: NEXT STEPS This pant is extremely versitile - not only can it be used for cycling, it can be used for all seated activities a paraplegic may want to do, including kayaking and using weight machines at the gym. There is also the possiblity of expanding this pant into othe paitent groups, such as geriatric paitents who are on bed rest.

The next step would be to further develop the pattern, looking at different ways to incorperate padding and different shapes. The more ergonomic, the better, so it can be continually improved.

It would also be good to look at different ways to style the pant.

While it is currently good quality fabric, better fabric and shape will improve the quality of the pant. Looking at stylistic choices are important to insure paitents will want to wear these pants.

This booklet is set in Fanwood Regular. Page headings are set in Steelfish, and Century Gothic is used for diagram text. Body paper is Paper Source’s pure white cartridge paper. End page paper is peacock invitation paper.

Cover paper is cover-weight pure white paper. This book was created by Anna Ferguson, a student at the University of Utah, to demonstrate the process that went into her Fall 2014 studio course in the Multi-Disciplinary Design program in partnership with the rehabillitation center at the University of Utah hospital.