Erin MacDonald

Flexy, Patented Sleeping Bag Insert for Sierra Designs, 2001 - This patented sleeping bag insert is designed to offer a constriction-free night's sleep to larger-sized campers who do not fit comfortably in a normal sized sleeping bag. The insert zips into almost any sleeping bag's zipper and adds six inches of girth (at the widest point) plus an additional four inches of elastic stretch. The concept was first conceived in 2000, by myself and my manager, Ted Ganio, and developed from concept to sales samples by me.

Rosa, Sleeping Bag Design for Sierra Designs, 2001 - The Rosa has orange piping to visually highlight it’s innovative features to the customer. To create this bag, I modified existing bag patterns with new color blocking, zipper, and pocket constructions; selected the color palette and fabrics; tested new synthetic insulations; and coordinated manufacturing of prototypes and sales samples with a new manufacturer. The resulting easy-to-sell features and low price point allowed Sierra Designs to place this bag with a “big-box” sporting goods store that had never before been interested in SD's sleeping bags.

Wind Tunnel Study and Finite Element Analysis of Tiros AST with Sierra Designs and Brown U., 2001 - When SD ran its first wind-tunnel tent test, only the maximum wind speed at tent failure and a video tape of wind hitting the tents were recorded. I arranged to have the recordings changed from cassette to digital and to include the wind speed in every frame of the video. We could then study, in freeze-frame, the forces on the tent while knowing the wind speed, and also to arrange collaboration with Brown University, which developed a Finite Element Analysis project that modeled tent behavior.

Tent Specifications, Sierra Designs, 2000 - While at Sierra Designs, I converted all specifications of tents and sleeping bags from hand-written documents to Excel spreadsheets with CorelDraw and AutoCAD inserts. As a result, prototype communications improved and iterations decreased. With access to up-to-date and specific information, SD's factory inspectors in Asia were able to accurately judge production quality. Pictured is the Tiros AST tent fly (Excel/CorelDraw), and the Four Season Stake loop (AutoCAD) used on the Tiros AST tent.