The call to action was simple enough – design a new way to air dry your clothes that would eliminate the need for a dryer and improve on the basic clothesline.
Levi Strauss & Co. called it the Care to Air Design Challenge, and those of us here at Myoo Create spread the word – to the whole world. The only caveat to entering was that design submissions had to be innovative, covetable, effective and sustainable.
Levi Strauss & Co. even offered up $10,000 in cash prizes – how’s that for incentive?
When the entry deadline arrived this past Saturday, we were all thrilled to see that more than 140 folks from Malta to Massachusetts put their creative air-drying solutions on the line.
Entries ran the gamut from out of the ordinary to the aesthetically pleasing to the incredibly practical.
Then came the task of narrowing down all of those design submissions to the top six finalists – including the community contributor who provided the best and most valuable feedback on the work of their fellow designers – what a task!
At Myoo Create, we were thrilled to host the contest for Levi Strauss & Co. Why? Well, a lifecycle assessment of a pair of Levi’s® 501® jeans revealed that, on average, almost 60% of the climate impact comes during the consumer phase. Nearly 80% of that is due to the energy-intensive method chosen for drying.
The Care to Air Design Challenge created the opportunity to help change that. And I have to say that Myoo Create members are all about helping to solve environmental challenges through community collaboration and a little healthy competition.
With this in mind, I’m happy to announce the finalists, three chosen by the folks at Levi’s® based on the established criteria and three chosen by community members of MyooCreate:
Myoo Create Crowdsourcing Finalists
Inertion Power – Andrey Kotsyuba; Ukraine
Levi Tower – Godzilla Team: Gediminas Kirdeikis, Aiste Dzikaraite, Petras Vestartas; Lithuania
Strauss Spin ‘n Dry – Jay Zapata & Jamie Evans; United States
Levi Strauss & Co. Finalists
Hang Anywhere X Aria – The Way We See the World: Chelsea Briganti, Ingrid Zweifel, Monica Bhatia, Leigh Ann Tucker & Gregory Davis; United States
The Evaporation Station – Jeff Munie and Marlowe Baca; United States
Nothing Is What It Seems – Caleb Hill; Canada
And, true to the community spirit of the Care to Air Design Challenge, in the end we decided to recognize not one but two top community contributors: Dr. Russ Hornstein and Luft.
Check ‘em out! I’m pretty impressed, myself. There’s a wonderful mix here of genius and imagination and skill. And I can’t wait to see who wins.
Stay tuned. We’ll find out on August 16 when an esteemed group of judges gathers in San Francisco to make the decisions. Given the contest goal, I predict one winner will be…our planet.
