ISC Wales

Maintaining a high Standard of quality is something that ISC Wales prides themselves on. They want their equipment going through a rigorous and lengthy field trialing process. Transforming good ideas on paper, into revolutionary products in working environments.

Reflex Mechanical Hitch

Designing a mechanical hitch is a massive undertaking. There are so many variables at play; climbing styles, rope types, weather conditions, load limits, functionality, durability, and user experience. Professionals need a device that they can rely on to handle any task that comes their way while maintaining the ease of use and security that life support kit requires.

ISC asked us to be part of a select group of field testers to abuse their device in all conditions, catalog data, and provide valuable feedback that could only come from months of real world use. This was a uniquely enriching and collaborative experience as the designers at ISC Wales hold themselves to such a high standard. Compliments are nice to hear but what they truly valued was every possible negative note experienced.

This rigorous process of field trial and error occurred over the course of an entire year. Dozens of redesigns, wear inspections, situational experiments, and reports. All four seasons that Southern Ontario has to offer put the Reflex through environmental extremes while we tested performance at a level that only premium production work can provide.

For a device as industry shaking as the Reflex, maintaining discretion was paramount to the success of the product release. All content created over this time fell into one of three categories; Private R&D (for discussion and product improvement), Private Marketing (time delayed glamor shots for potential future product rollout), and Public Content (the content worked on and released unrelated to the Reflex project). Oftentimes this meant filming/capturing three different takes simultaneously.

In conclusion the product and its release was a smashing success. Surprising the industry and taking it by storm. We timed individual and personal social media posts with the official rollout to showcase the organic and holistic development process. To follow up, we attended industry expos alongside ISC to give training and experiential advice on its use to potential customers.

Nessie Lanyard Clip

The Nessie lanyard clip was in development over the course of many years. The end user experience and applicability to all climbing styles and situations was a major focus. Beginning as a 3D printed device it was refined and shaped over time to become the standard for lanyard management that it is today. Durability, temperature performance, and rope diameter synergy were all consulted on during this time.

Field trial samples were distributed to established competition and advanced level production climbers. Providing perspectives required to be as feature-rich and material efficient as possible. Further work was done on branding, market research, copywriting, and product release coordination.

Today it is expanding its influence and applicability to other at heights industries such as Rope Access, Rock Climbing, and High Angle Rescue. Successful in many ways perhaps its crowning achievement is that copycat products have begun to emerge!

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It is an honor to be part of this collaborative and thorough approach to product design.

Proactive and inventive, ISC Wales is always looking for new solutions.