Re: Wacky portable tent

Walking Shelter: Clever shoes hide a portable tent

Kimberley Mok
Design / Sustainable Product Design
August 10, 2013

From geometric caravans to homes in a cart, the idea of having a portable shelter wherever one travels can be an enticing one (depending on your disposition, of course). Australian design company Sibling has made what is probably the most provident of shoes, a pair of sneakers with an integrated shelter hidden in the back.


http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/shoes-hide-portable-shelter-sibling.html

There seems to be a few problems; YOU are the central support. If you collapse, so does the tent. It allso appears that spreading your legs appart is what keeps the sides of the tent appart. I wonder what it weighs and would you want that weight on your feet?

I'll pass.

This strikes me as one of those concepts that, wacky as it seems at first blush, is not without practical applications. In this particular implementation, however (at least based on the pictures shown), it appears that your body is the only rigid support for the skin of the tent...in fact, it appears that this is nothing BUT the skin of the "tent." It's the support structure that would be the tricky bit...not a big deal with today's fabrics to get something in the shape of a tent that folds down to almost nothing but how do you support the thing?

Quote
DavidK42
This strikes me as one of those concepts that, wacky as it seems at first blush, is not without practical applications. In this particular implementation, however (at least based on the pictures shown), it appears that your body is the only rigid support for the skin of the tent...in fact, it appears that this is nothing BUT the skin of the "tent." It's the support structure that would be the tricky bit...not a big deal with today's fabrics to get something in the shape of a tent that folds down to almost nothing but how do you support the thing?

It appears that you have a "tent" as long as you can sit upright with your legs spread appart.

Another one of those "What were they thinking?" Not practical for hikers. Might be useful for homeless people but who is going to buy it for them.