Niro is a project for ALPKIT, a brand that highlights 3 fundamental values to describe itself: accessibility, inclusivity and sustainability. Niro has been inspired in their Tow-Float called Nori. This project is an evolution of it and of Tow-Floats in general. It consists on an emergency device conceived and designed for all levels of outdoor swimmers in order to encourage and motivate more people to go swimming outdoors.
In the images above Niro is in its normal, unactivated state. On the left there is the front view and on the right is the side view. As can be seen, it consists of a neoprene sleeve (recycled) in a high visibility colour (to make the user visible at all times) which contains two floats folded inside; one at the front and one at the back.The main function of Niro is to activate the two floats in case of emergency so that the swimmer is protected and out of danger. They are activated by a CO2 cartridge thanks to an activation strap at the front which the swimmer can pull in case he/she feels unwell, has injured him/herself, needs to rest urgently or any situation that makes him/her feel unprotected.
The images at the top show the Niro activated. On the left side, the front view shows the front float with the CO2 cartridge visible when the float is removed from the neoprene sleeve trough the hole it has (closed with velcro). This float ensures that the swimmer's body does not tend to go forward and prevents his face from being submerged in the water. On the right side you can see Niro activated at the back, which keeps the swimmer head first at the surface to ensure that he does not drown in case he loses consciousness. The floats are connected and form one through the braces that connect them by a small tube also made of float (this can be interpreted in the illustration below, which represents the inflated shoulder straps).
Activation process of Niro
Some Niro sketches
