Lowercase Designs Welcomes Outdoor Industry Veteran

lowercase designs, llc, announced the addition of outdoor industry veteran, Alexei “Lyosha” Tcherepanov, as a partner, in the SF based design and innovation consultancy.

“We are very excited that Alexei, has joined our team,” said co-founder and creative director, Tae Kim. “lowercase has partnered up with several brands this past year to bring new innovations into the marketplace and adding someone like Alexei, adds a great level of technical knowledge from his many years in design and development.”

Alexei started with The North Face in 1995 shortly after moving to the US from Siberia. He was the lead developer for The North Face in the areas of Tents, Sleeping Bags and Down Technology. He also specializes in manufacturing technologies and has helped with welding innovations at Youngone, a lead manufacturer of technical outerwear and packs.

Recently, he’s returned to the Bay Area after a year-long trip with his family. He wanted to not only share the diverse cultural experiences of the world with his children, but to also re-visit his first experiences in the outdoor world and explore the simple, unique and innovative products designed and built by the indigenous communities around the world.

“Growing up in Siberia, we didn’t have much outdoor equipment available to us and in order to be able to go outdoors, climb mountains and run rivers, we had to make our own gear,” said Tcherepanov. “We used everything from nylon of used parachutes for tents to rubberized military material for our boots. We used the limited resources we had on hand to create gear that would enable us to explore the Siberian wilderness.”

In addition to his product design and development responsibilities, Alexei will also help lowercase launch an educational and historical book series on outdoor equipment design with the first book slated to focus on sleeping bag design.

“Our business revolves around forward thinking design and innovative function, and as a result, we are always looking to new inspiration,” added co-founder Thomas Newth. “One area we are always looking to is the past. We believe that better understanding past design and innovations will inspire new ideas. This series of books, starting with sleeping bag design, will give us an opportunity to highlight some of the amazing products from the past and give some insight into the process of outdoor product design and development.”



About lowercase designs, llc:

lowercase designs is a San Francisco based design and innovation consultancy

that specializes in outdoor, sports and medical equipment industries. Founded by Tae Kim, former design director of The North Face and Thomas Newth, former product developer at Timbuk2, they have spent the last two years helping to launch several companies including, Alite designs, Onya Baby and Minna.

lowercase designs has also helped launch new products and categories of innovation for K2 Sports, Timbuk2, Patagonia, Eddie Bauer’s First Ascent collection and Chums of Japan.

Contact:

Tae Kim

Lowercase Designs, llc

p 415.626.2181

f 415.520.9697

contact@lwrsf.com

www.lwrsf.com