Patch Pack

patch-pack

Category:

EPOP

Location:

Boulder Colorado @ Firefly Market

Date:

Nov 15, 2025

This everyday crossbody bag gives your most loved jacket a second life—designed to carry your essentials and your spirit of adventure.

Third-year Environmental Product Design students at CU Boulder work in teams of three to design, refine, and produce a sustainable product for the Firefly Holiday Market. Since 2019, they’ve created more than 60 unique items that blend solid craftsmanship with environmental stewardship.

Each group of three is put in a user category, while one group updates the shop each year. My group was team softgoods, AKA the THREADBENDERS!

IDEATION

Immediate prototyping and ideation consisted of sketching and charrette style collaboration, which led to form modeling with paper then fabric.

A bag to attach to a backpack or hang from a water bottle was proposed, but was considered too niche.

A more traditional pleated sling pack was what we settled on, bridging the gap between functional but apersonal, aimed to be giftable yet useful.

REFINEMENT

Thanks to generous donations from Thule, Arc’teryx, Patagonia, Neptune Mountaineering, Bison Designs, Play It Again Sports, and Boulder Sports Recycler, we had the materials we needed. Their support not only made this project possible—it gave each bag a unique story and look rooted in sustainability.

After realizing that the pattern we made was unsustainable for production, we needed to pivot to a pleatless template that kept the successful design elements

In order to make a more premium product, we also curated zippers, pulls, and made our own acetal buckles from scratch.

CONSTRUCTION

OUTCOME

The EPOP shop 2025 was a success! Every product sold out at market, and the booth was buzzing the whole time. I think the patch pack was a good, well-constructed product, but if I were to do it again, I would make something more giftable. The small cross body bag market is extremely saturated, so im thrilled that this pack was successful and will be a gift under the tree this season!