We at Badger Gears have been involved in triathlons for the past four years. With full time jobs from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm outside of our startup company, we either have to train early in the morning or at night after work. We do go to the gym, but it’s not quite the same as being outdoors. When we’ve trained at night, we’ve been concerned that despite headlights and our reflective clothing, drivers don’t necessarily see us on the road unless headlights are aimed directly at us. Even when we drive, we notice we can barely see people cycling, running, or taking their dogs on walks. We thought there must be a better way to keep active people safe at night, so that’s how the Badger 360° LED Jacket got started.
While doing some research, we found that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) stated that the majority of bike accidents in 2010 happened between the hours of 4:00 pm to 7:59 pm and that 72 percent of the cyclist fatalities occurred in urban areas. The state of California had the highest fatalities among all the states and, based on the U.S. Census in 2011, Davis, California had the highest percentage of people biking to work out of any other city in the country. Wouldn’t it be great if people in larger metropolitan areas like Los Angeles would feel safe enough to bike so we’d have less congestion on our roads? After all, more bikes on the road could lead to less dependence on oil.
We at Badger Gears are concerned about our environment. That’s why our jacket uses low voltage LED lights. It also comes with a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that can be recharged more than five hundred times. This means not as many trips to buy expensive replaceable batteries and less waste in our landfills. We want our products to help save lives in a conscious, sustainable way and the Badger 360° LED Jacket is our first step. If our LED jacket can give a biker, runner, or someone that takes walks at night a couple more seconds to avoid an accident, then bringing this product to the market is worth every bit of our time and energy. Please consider being a part of our Kickstarter project.
This project was featured in GOOD's Saturday series Push for Good— our guide for crowdfunding creative progress.
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