Everyone is becoming more environmentally conscious and we all know the problem of buying groceries and packing them into too many plastic bags each week. Not one, but two of course in order to secure they do not rupture and due to a lack of a working, innovative alternative.

One of Steltons most successful designers, Klaus Rath, has thought about this problem and came up with a solution that is fashionable, secure and functional at the same time, saving us all the use of and money needed for plastic bags along the way.

Shopnic – the new shopping / picnic basket

Klaus Rath has done it again. The young designer behind the bestselling Stelton bread bag has developed an all new shopping-/ picnic basket called ”Shopnic”. It carries a weight of 10 kg and takes about 15 l. Shopnic can, when not in use, be folded to a minimum of 7 cm in height, which is practical to fit below the child’s buggy or inside your car’s trunk, making space for larger items.

Compared to traditional solutions, Shopnic is supplied with a spring, making it possible to be unfolded like a magician’s hat – a practical idea, when you have already one hand holding e.g. your groceries or your child’s buggy. Shopnic has the perfect size both for shopping and the weekend’s picnic, why it is named Shopnic.

Shopnic comes in black/sand, sand/pistachio and red/pink colour schemes – fashionable colours which suit every style.

Both, the inside & outside covers may be washed in the washing machine by 30°C, making stains from spilled milk, juice and other liquids inside the basket a thing of the past.

The flexible bath tub, The Flexi Bath, is the result of a source of irritation in the bathroom. Friday, Stinne Fruelund, owner of Play for Life ApS, and Designer Niels Peter Estrup, A Real Cool World, won the Formland Design Award for the product.

– For me it was an issue that our baby bath tub took up too much space – in what was a small bathroom too. So I started thinking that perhaps it could be folded to make it easy to store. After three years we now have the end result – and even a design award in our hands, says Designer Niels Peter Estrup, A Real Cool World, who continues:

– It has been essential for us that the product is environmentally sound, sustainable and produced locally under the right conditions. The cost of producing the bath tub was the same regardless of whether production took place in Denmark or in China so the natural choice was a Danish factory.

Great interest in Asia

The factory in North Jutland that produces the Flexi Bath, can produce 700,000 bath tubs annually. The children’s bath tub is particularly suitable for everyone who lives in small apartments with even smaller bathrooms. Already now, the signs are that the product could be an international sales success.

– We are experiencing a large amount of interest from Asia; especially from Japan, where the children’s bath tub is very much in demand. The Asian product launch takes place in April. Then the markets in Norway and Finland will follow and then the rest of Europe, says Niels Peter Estrup, A Real Cool World.

Heat sensitive drain plug

Initially however, the Danes will be the first to benefit from the children’s bath tub. The Flexi Bath will be commercially available from the beginning of March and is sold by the Copenhagen-based company Play for Life ApS. Here, expectations are high after winning the Formland Design Award:

– The Formland Design Award provides us good support for the launch of The Flexi Bath in Denmark, where our target is to sell 10,000 examples during the first year, says Stinne Fruelund, owner of Play for Life ApS.

The Formland Design Award was presented at the opening of Formland Spring 2009. The award includes a marketing contribution of DKK 100,000. The Flexi Bath is introduced in seven different colours. Besides being foldable in the middle, the children’s bath tub comes with a heat sensitive drain plug that changes colour when the water temperature exceeds 36 degrees. The recommended retail price for the Flexi Bath is DKK 269.00.

PH 5 celebrates its 50th anniversary. Louis Poulsen commemorates the birthday by introducing PH 50, a special version of the famous fixture, a bright spot in your interior design. We like it . Scandinavian Design at its best. A classic that will last forever.