A streamlined backpack known as an ‘urban sling’ is attracting attention on Kickstarter, having surpassed its original funding goal by more than 6,320%.
Dubbed, the Radiant Urban Sling, this reimagined backpack is currently trending on the popular crowdfunding website, Kickstarter, after surmounting a modest $5,000 funding goal by more than 63 times over. Right now, the Radiant boasts a massive $316,000 in pledges from 4,188 backers.
The Team
The product comes from a Virginia-based bag design company called NIID. The firm was founded in 2014 by product designer Jason Li and sports enthusiast, Harris Hayne.
The pair noted a distinct lack of style in the baggage chosen by business professionals, deciding there and then to create a line of functional and fashionable backpack products.
Progress of the campaign
Currently, the radiant is on track to fulfilling its funding goal by Sun, February 2, 2020. As it’s an all or nothing project, the funding wouldn’t be released unless the firm reached its goal. Fortunately, due to the campaign more than surpassing its original goal, backers can expect the product to be fully funded and delivered.
Right now, delivery of the sling is expected in March 2020; however, the firm notes that production and fulfillment may pose an issue:
“We are working with top-notch suppliers, and we have padded our timeline to make sure we can hit the time frames we have laid out,” reads the disclaimer, “the challenge, therefore, will not be the production side, but mostly the fulfillment side. We now have a good margin in our delivery times, and hope to deliver all the bags even before the deadline mentioned on this page.”
According to their timeline, the production stage is underway as of January 2020. In any case, given NIID’s history of production and delivery, investor fulfillment shouldn’t be an issue.
Investor Rewards
Investors who managed to bag the now-ended “super early bird” pledge, would have received the radiant for just $49, round $40 off the planned $89MSRP.
Nevertheless, another limited early bird pledge still allows investors to get $30 off the MSRP. A further deal offers 2 radiant bags for $99 a saving of $80 in total.
The Specs of the Sling
In trying to strike a balance between aesthetics ergonomics and practicality, the Radiant urban sling does a fairly good job. The pack manages to maintain it’s relatively compact size while also allowing for a full capacity of 6L.
Moreover, the bag neatly contracts and expands as it’s filled, allowing both horizontal and vertical expansion for items such as a drone, SLR camera, Nintendo Switch, and even a 12 inch iPad.
The campaign page lists a myriad of compatible devices, including the amazon kindle and fire as well as the Lenovo tab and Nintendo 3ds.
For immediate access and peace of mind, the sling comes equipped with a magnetic flip closure. This trumps traditional—and sometimes temperamental—button and zip fixtures as they can frequently break and add unnecessary complexity. In contrast, the magnetic element enables easy access for the user while providing a tamper-free theft-proof opening.
The external opening isn’t the only beneficiary of a magnetic element, the strap too makes use of magnetism, allowing for a quick release buckle which negates the awkward need to pull the entire bag over one’s head. Further, a YKK strap stopper adjusts smoothly to retract and expand the strap, facilitating easy movement around the body.
The bag also contains several nooks on either side for the temporary storage of a water bottle, umbrella, or bike lock. Further amenities include an external fastening application for items such as a camera tripod and a retractable keychain for ease of use and security.
The sling contains a number of pockets, one on the front containing the aforementioned retractable keychain, one ‘hidden’ zip pocket on the side, and another semi-open compartment on the bottom.
While the sling offers many features of which the traditional backpack often fall short on, one crucial drawback of the sling remains its size. These days, the ability to store a full laptop in a backpack is essential, and while the radiant allows for multiple device storage, it falls short on laptop compatibility.
Regardless, for those looking for a durable and practical day bag that can almost do it all, the radiant sling may well be a good choice.
