RPM- Rolling Percussive Massager

CWD

RPM

Chirp

2024

Industrial Design

User Research

CMF Design

Rendering

About The Project

On this project, I had the chance to help lead Chirp’s first foray into consumer electronics, initially as the sole designer working with engineer Reeve Sudweeks, and then in collaboration with Weston Hills, to create the RPM.My main contributions to this project were collaborating on the main form, functions, and mechanics, and envisioning the CMF of Chirp’s first major step outside of Yoga Wheels.

Evolving Percussive Massage

In the fitness recovery space there is a correlation between applied pressure and pain relief. Unfortunately, with all consumers there is also a connection between time and usage. With traditional massage guns and foam rollers, we found that products either didn’t offer enough pressure, or that pressure was so centralized that full body relief took too long. Previous attempts to solve this problem were simply impractical. So they question became: how can we provide the pressure of a massage gun with widespread muscle coverage?

aesthetic blue photo of a blonde woman in black clothes

aesthetic blue photo of a sitting woman in military clothing

Process

Prototyping and Concept Development

In the ideation process, it all started with a paint roller, wood beads, and a DeWalt drill. Once we had verified the feeling of the mechanism, it came to the best form to apply it. During this process I explored concave cages, singular units, beads, angled handles for extra pressure, all before the team settled on the final form you can see in the top right: An interlocking bead cage with wide handles for applying pressure.

In the prototyping process there was a lot of quick and dirty mockups at the beginning. Starting with a paint roller and a bag of beads from Joann fabrics, we created a drill attachment that validated the feeling we were going for, and then slowly developed each component from there, ending up with the final result that is visible on the next slide.