OUR STORY
We
Are All
Connected
Pando was originally conceived by our son, Max Loudenslager, a 5th-grade student who was frustrated with the current backpack options available in the market. In his words, “Thank you Mom and Dad for purchasing these backpacks, but I’m tired of backpacks that aren’t comfortable, durable, or designed with students in mind.” So, as any dad with a long history of Design and Engineering Leadership roles with companies such as YETI, OtterBox, and PING Golf would ask…” Do you have a better idea?”
Max quickly responded, “yes” and got to work on sketches and prototypes of what would become the World’s first backpack designed by students, for students. After sharing his ideas with friends he quickly realized that he was not alone in his frustrations with the current backpack offerings. This was a common and widespread problem that could be turned into a great opportunity while also providing benefit for other students.
An idea was born,
and we set off on a 2-year journey to
build a better backpack!
I was able to leverage my experience and relationships in backpack, luggage, and accessory design and manufacturing to help realize Max’s dream. We were also able to engage directly with a variety of student groups to gather insights and test our designs. Through this insight driven design process we were able to clearly understand the needs of the demanding student market and finalize our new product. This process not only informed the design and feature set of the new backpack, but also provided an invaluable educational opportunity for the students themselves. Thank you for your interest in our story and we sincerely hope you enjoyed learning more!
John Loudenslager
Award Winning Product Design Expert
OUR NAME
PANDO
(Latin for “spread”) is a colony, or forest of Aspen Trees located in a magical place at the western edge of the Colorado Plateau in south-central Utah, US.
Pando has been determined to be the World’s largest living organism as each individual Aspen tree is connected by a single common root system. The idea of being connected in this way is how we at Pando Bags see the World, we are all individuals, but
“We Are All Connected”.