Whether you are travelling or you just have an active lifestyle, the BauBax jacket will make your life a whole lot easier.
If you are a regular traveller, you will be only too aware of the less glamorous elements of the whole business. Wasted downtime at airports and other transit points; the curse of the phone charger; sore neck muscles; limited sources of free drinking water; and the even more challenging public power point! And that’s just to name a few.
How could some of these issues be resolved?
Enter Sanghavi Hiral – a student studying his MBA at Northwestern University in Evanston, just 19 km north of Chicago in the US state of Illinois.
Travelling into central Chicago every week to where he lives with his wife,Yoganshi Shah, he decided it was about time to solve some of the problems he faced as a frequent traveller.
His wife, Yoganshi Shah, is an ergonomic designer. She was able to help Hirala with the project to design and launch a multi-feature jacket – named the BauBax – designed to make regular travel that bit easier.
To get funding so he could go ahead with producing the jackets, Hiral started a crowdfunding campaign for it.
Crowdfunding is where you raise money for a project or venture by getting contributions from a large number of people, most of whom you don’t know – usually via the internet. Hiral started with a goal of US$20,000 but the concept was clearly a big hit!
The BauBax jacket went viral and US$2.8 million was raised in only three weeks from 15,000 backers. It has since reached over $3 million from over 18,000 backers. The jacket is now the most funded clothing project in the history of crowdfunding.
Swiss Army knife of travel clothing
Nicknamed by some as the Swiss Army knife of travel gear, the BauBax jacket is said to be everything you could want in an item of clothing. It not only keeps you warm like other jackets – it has 15 extra features which are meant to make your life easier. Made from microfibre cloth, it comes with a built-in neck pillow that inflates in two seconds, earphone holders, a passport pocket, an iPhone charger, a sunglass pocket, an eye mask, gloves, an iPad pocket and even a drink holder.
The jacket’s zip doubles as a pen and a touch screen stylus. Hand warmers in the front pockets protect you from the cold and open-finger gloves slide out from the sleeves. A small rolled-up blanket is there in a pocket for long trips.
The world’s most wanted travel jacket
The Baubax is now the world’s most wanted travel item.
It comes in four different styles – bomber, windbreaker, sweatshirt and blazer. It’s available in male or female versions and in different colours. At this stage, it is expected to be priced from around $US160 for the sweatshirt, up to around $200 for the blazer (plus taxes) and will be available in November for shipping worldwide.
Hiral says its the first in the line of BauBax products. He said he plans to design more hi-tech clothes including placing sensors in apparel so it can measure a person’s vital signs and the conditions of his or her surroundings. For example, if you’re too cold, your sweatshirt could communicate with your thermostat and automatically raise the temperature in your home. For more information look here.
