jump rope design stars in art installation

The RapidFit jump rope was designed by our sport and fitness design team in 2016, for Californian company Rx Smart Gear. 

The jump rope is featuring in the National Gallery of Victoria’s, Melbourne Now, Design Wall – celebrating innovative consumer products designed in Melbourne, Australia.  

The RapidFit jump rope is the world’s first dual-bearing handle jump rope with length adjustment. Our expertise in sports product development and design of fitness equipment, ensured the jump rope was engineered to be robust and easy to use.

With the humble jump rope experiencing a resurgence throughout the mid-2010s, outerspace’s brief was to create a jump rope that can be quickly, intuitively and easily adjusted within seconds, without the need for extra tools. 

The rope adjusts in small increments, with ten settings activated by simply pushing a button on the handle. It’s designed to reduce frustration, improve skipping technique, and eliminate twists and tangles. 

The product is easily disassembled and maintained, and includes replaceable, interchangeable parts to ensure longevity. 

With skipping rising in popularity in the years after the RapidFit jump rope was released, and more so during the COVID-19 pandemic, the release of the jump rope was well timed.

It provides a low-cost, portable and effective way to workout for seasoned jump-ropers and beginners alike.

The RapidFit jump rope won the Sport and Active Lifestyle prize in the 2018 Good Design Awards Australia. outerspace’s designs, more broadly, have won numerous prizes in the same awards program, as well as awards from the Powerhouse Museum, Interior Design Excellence Awards (IDEA), Industrial Design Excellence, CES Innovation, Worldstar Global Packaging, Packaging Council and iF design awards.

about Melbourne Now and the Design Wall

Representing thirty-five projects by twenty-five design studios, from industrial design consultancies to in-house research and design departments, the installation brings together designers, companies and brands, shaping the way we live today.

Design is always about delivering a degree of change. How and why new products are developed is driven by social dynamics, regulations and economic forces. 

Encoded with vast amounts of information, products and their designs are shaped by the conditions and systems of place and time, development and delivery are the result of process. 

Offering insight into the factors influencing contemporary product design in Melbourne, the collection explores how everyday goods can embody the qualities of place and the values of those who live there. 

The four themes of the Design Wall – Change and Stability, Localities and Markets, Process and Proximity, and Creative Currents show how Melbourne’s society, culture, geography and marketplace interacts to influence what is being designed there.

Representing new product models and product iterations, the homeware, healthcare, trade, sporting, furniture and lifestyle products in the Design Wall installation offer a view into how Melbourne designers, companies and brands are taking their products from concept to market and making valued contributions to the dynamic landscape of applied creativity in Melbourne.

The Design Wall is an exhibition design collaboration between NGV and Hassell architects, Melbourne – curated by Simone LeAmon, Hugh Williamson Curator of Contemporary Design and Architecture, NGV.

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