Flow Bindings New Active Strap Technology wins Snowboarder Magazine’s Platinum Awards

The New Active Strap binding technology known as NX-2 GT NASTY recently won the Snowboarders Magazine platinum product awards. The Pillar Product Design team worked with with the Flow team for nearly 2 years developing and performing mechanical engineering services on this new binding technology. It is definetly one of the hotest performing bindings on the market to date. We were very excited and honered to be involved in the development of the binding program and to work with such innovative individuals. Congrats for all the hard work and energy from the FLOW product management team for making this product idea a reality and turning

Bon Hiver Snowboarding

The Pillar Product Design team is working with the new and innovative Bon Hiver Snowboarding group. Our goal is to push the line to the next level. The patented Bon Hiver system let’s the user set their straps and leave it.  This innovative system allows the user to dis-connect and reconnect tot he board tool free and on the fly. One footed airs, foot plants in the pipe. This product really opens up some interesting opportunities.

Award Winning MTN Approach Ski Product Designed by Pillar Product Design

Pillar Product Design wins Notable 2012 Core 77 Design Awards for MTN Approach Ski

Dear Bob: Congratulations! You are the Professional Consumer Products Notable of the 2012 Core77 Design Awards! Thanks so much for participating and we’re excited about sharing the great news with our network. Here are your official Award details: = = = = = = = = = = = = Core77 Design Awards Consumer Products Professional Notable 2012 MTN Approach backcountry accent ski MTN Approach = = = = = = = = = = = = Share the great news with your friends: Core77 Design Awards Project Page: http://www.core77designawards.com/2012/recipients/mtn-approach-backcountry-accent-ski/ Core77 Design Awards Category Honorees: http://www.core77designawards.com/2012/award_category/consumer-products/ Twitter: I’m a Notable for the 2012 @Core77Awards for the Consumer Products category! #C77DA12 http://bit.ly/RuEZbC Your Jury Comments Well

Zipbuds Anti-tangle Earbuds Developed by Pillar Product Design

Travel + Leisure 2012 Design Awards

DGA (Digital Group Audio) worked with Pillar Product Design  team on the product development of the Zipbuds anti-tangle free earbuds. In Travel + Leisure March 2012 edition was voted “Best Personal Gadget”.

Bike Pedal Product Designed by Pillar and Wellgo Pedals

Pillar Product Design working with Wellgo Pedals

Pillar Product Design is very excited about working with the Wellgo team and developing new bike components. Personally, I have known and worked with Wellgo for over 15 years. Wellgo is an amazing team and offer world class manufacturing services. Wellgo I believe the largest supplier and manufacturer of bike pedals on the planet. The company is a family owned business and has been supporting and leading the mountain bike, downhill, commuter, road / race bike industry with their high quality world class designs.

FLOW Snowboard 2013 Active Strap line by Pillar Product Design and FLOW Snowboards

FLOW Snowboard 2013 Active Strap line

So with SIA wrapped up, it was exciting to see Flow’s new 2012- 2013 binding line “The Active Strap” be premiered for the first time. Pillar Product Design worked with the Flow team to develop this new technology. We assisted FLOW Snowboards on developing the active strap as well as the new ratchet lock ankle and toe buckle mechanism. You are looking at some serious product development work and enginuity at work. This binding design is a complete game changer for FLOW’S binding line. You are looking at the future. The active strap allows the straps to pull another 1″

Pillar Product Design Goes to Peru

Back from Peru

I took a month off and went to Peru with My family for the month of Jan. We checked out some amazing Inca and pre-Inca ruins. One thing we came across that was amazing from an engineering stand point was an aqueduct system that was cut from solid stone using a harder stone. These aqueducts were nearly 8km in length and they used ingenious designs like throwing a 90 degree angle in the path to lower the water level and slow the flow. They used system like narrowing or splitting the aqueduct to raise the water to transfer the

MTN Approach Product Featured in Outside Magazine

MTN Approach article in Outside Magazine

MTN Approach featured #1 innovative product in Outside magazine 2012 Radical Design Award. Stoked production product to hit the market soon. The bindings and straps on this system were developed by Pillar Product Design Seattle, WA

Ergonomically Designed and Developed Camera Strap by Black Rapid and Pillar Product Design

Moving very rapid with Black Rapid

Pillar Product Design has been working directly with Black Rapid for over a 3 months now to benchmark new designs and develop innovative and ergo friendly camera / strap component and accessories. Black Rapid only uses the best of the best with the design, materials and construction. They do a ton of field testing as well as lab testing before any product sees the light of day. The Pillar Product Design team is very excited to be working in conjunction with the Black Rapid team. 

Pillar Product Design Website Mockup

New Pillar Product Design web site on deck

The Pillar Product Design team has been working diligently with Horse Power Design developing our new web site. The site should be up and running in about 1 to 2 weeks. We have added a bunch of new projects as well as features for our clients to better interface with us. We also took a long look at making it easier to navigate and search the site for information. Every month we will be spotlight a client on our front page with a video feed. Here is a peek at our new face.

MTN Approach Product in Final Testing Phase

MTN approach final finishing touches

MTN Approach testing At Pillar Product Design we are so excited for Cory Smith to be growing MTN Approach line of product. In the true spirit of product innovation, Cory is learning and understanding the energy and persistence needed to effectively launch an innovative product to market. He has spent incredible time and resources testing and re-testing his product continually trying to increase the over-all quality, functionality and value of his product. A big cheers to his efforts on making this a spectacular and innovative product.

Pillar Product Design Team Adds Engineer

Growing the Pillar Product Design team!

Pillar Product Design is bringing on a new talented individual on the 20th of this month. He is a recent graduate from San Francisco School of Arts. His experience includes industrial design, concept development, 3D modelling and new product development. Dan has a strong background in audio, electronics and action sports. We are very excited that he will be joining our small team and his skill sets and experience will be a great addition to the services that Pillar Product Design offers. Dan will be working closely with Tyler on up and coming projects.

Vintage Old School Snowboards SIA 2011

Vintage old school snowboards SIA 2011

So I was looking through some old digital pics and came across some skull candy booth pictures. Boards of the past. I used to own some of these boards and was blown away what some of these old sticks are worth. It was a blast I was checking out some of the Barfoot boards and who was hanging out was Chuck Barfoot. I had the chance to make turns with Chuck back in the late 80’s in Tahoe. He frequently hit Boreal and Donner Ski Pass. back in the day Chuck had a big ol Red beard that was like

Bugatti product design inspiration

At Pillar Product Design we do a fair amount of product and over-all random research in the early stages of the product development cycle. I am always looking for random examples of how designs marry materials, color, textures, shapes and forms together into a design and a product that is time-less. I basically geek out on this stuff and really love to see creative who can really push the edge of where form meets practical design and functionality. When I come across a design that is minimalistic but fuses multiple functions, materials to meet a given form and performance, It shows that the product that has gone thru

Ipad2 in the house

The Ipad2 is wonderful piece of electronics. I recently had sometime to play with one and the larger work area is really enjoyable especially for Internet surfing and picture viewing. Watching movies is pretty good as well. I had a difficult time typing, but maybe it is just me learning to type on a flat touch sensitive surface. I really like the glass they are using, it seems to be very durable and doesn’t scratch as easy as the previous model. Plus it is now at the somewhat affordable cost starting at or around $499. At Pillar Design I have been getting surge of folks wanting to

DGA Zipbuds on the Ellen show

DGA Zipbuds marketing machine in action shown on the Ellen Show. Check it out! http://ellen.warnerbros.com/2011/01/win_an_ipod_nano_with_zipbuds_earphones_0104.php