Floatee

Floatee set out to create an anti-drowning T-shirt for children. Behind the project lies a harsh reality: several hundred accidental drownings every year in France alone.

By integrating a buoyancy element into a T-shirt, children can play safely without even being aware they are protected.

Development of the T-shirt was already under way, with an early pocket design to hold the float. Floatee asked SME to design that custom float: sized for children, easy to integrate into the T-shirt and compliant with applicable standards.

Make the most of the usable space in a child's T-shirt to fit a float with enough volume and the right shape to meet the standards. A simple design, to keep production costs down, that ensures:

• head support: mouth and nose kept a minimum distance above the water once the child has resurfaced;
• turning the child over if unconscious and lying face down;
• deployment in minimal time, and welds that withstand inflation;
• materials supple and light enough to fit into the T-shirt without hindering movement.

The float was designed to the requirements of the life jacket standard, even though the product is more complex than a simple life jacket. Despite these additional constraints, it passed the standard tests.

Design was decisive: the strength of the assembly welds depends closely on the float's dimensions and shape.

Quality materials and careful design ensure instant inflation by CO₂ cartridge, without damaging the float.

Gold medal at the 2023 Concours Lépine, Mayor of Paris Prize, medal of the French Society of Exercise and Sports Medicine, 1st Fidéalis prize.

The product: floatee.co

“I had the pleasure of working with Benjamin on the development of several inflatable bladders. Thanks to his network and industrial partners, Benjamin set up an agile organization allowing fast iteration between design, prototyping and testing, perfectly matching our development needs.”Thibaut Choulet, co-founder & COO, Floatee (translated from French)

Images: Floatee.