Design innovation of functional cycling sportswear

Abstract

This research aims to develop an integrated design model and realize design innovation of functional cycling sportswear (FCS). Based on investigating the characteristics of cycling sport and the mechanisms involved in thermo-physiology, biomechanics and aesthetics, this design innovation model provides a novel design framework to achieve cycling sportswear with desirable functions for satisfying the aesthetic, thermal and biomechanical functional requirements of the cyclists during wear. The research work has been conducted by developing the theoretical framework, and then simultaneously carrying out aesthetic, thermal and biomechanical functional design, finally creating FCS prototypes with existing machines and technologies. The cycling sportswear by meeting the multi-functional requirements in terms of thermal comfort, biomechanical protection and aesthetics, is highly demanded by cyclists. These multi-functional requirements lead to the design innovation of FCS with application of multi-disciplinary knowledge integration. A theoretical framework for the FCS design has been developed to model the design process by systematically integrating different knowledge and identifying the relationships between them, which demonstrates that the design innovation of FCS is the fusion of aesthetic design with thermal and biomechanical functional design. With this theoretical framework, the aesthetical design, thermal functional design and biomechanical functional design of cycling sportswear have been carried out and reported in individual chapters. Based on the fusion of the design in these three aspects, the final fused functional cycling sportswear design was realized through illustrating the design inspiration and design brief. Three collections of FCS prototypes were created according to the different applications, including Collection I for the 5th Qiaodan Cup International Sport Equipment Design Contest, Collection II for the exhibition of the SMART Convention 2008, and Collection III for the 2012 London Olympic Games. In summary, with these achievements in this study, a model of multi-functional design innovations has been developed scientifically and systematically, with which the high performance sportswear products with superior functional performance can be achieved for various applications.