MXXY is a wearable hydration system, aimed specifically at dedicated athletes who carry two bottles: One for water, one for electrolytes. Why would someone do that? "Athletes need a different balance of electrolytes at one level of exertion versus another," the company explains.

"With your current routine you stop your hike or ride to reach for a separate bottle of electrolytes, fumble through your backpack for a disposable sports drink, or gunk up your hydration pack with sodium tablets. Besides not optimizing your performance, you're removing yourself from your experience in the outdoors, and adding unnecessary cleaning to your post-adventure routine."

To that end the MXXY system features two separate bladders and a mixing valve attached to the drinking hose. This allows their target market of hikers, climbers, runners and cyclists to toggle back and forth between bladders, or dial in a blend, with each sip.

"The adjustable dial controls flow from both reservoirs so users can fine-tune their hydration based on changing conditions or exertion levels," writes Whipsaw, the industrial design and engineering consultancy called in to create both the original product and its recent update, the MXXY Flexx.

"The design challenge of this second-generation system was to evolve the MXXY brand identity, reduce overall size, and create a unified adjustment and fluid valve system for an improved experience. Flexx is the culmination of years of partnership with the MXXY team to bring this product from ideation through manufacturing."

"All-in-one control. By combining the mixing valve and dial actuator into one, and positioning the fluid blending much closer to the user's mouth, this second-generation design is a more compact and intuitive design with greatly improved usability. This approach also reduces part count, assembly complexity, size, and weight."

"Blending outdoor gear with high-tech design. This second-generation hydration system leans into its technical and precise DNA with its feature set and brand expression across materials, colors, and finishes."

"A vertical attachment approach saves space. A thinner, streamlined bladder system fits better into low-profile backpacks, making it easier to use and more appropriate for athletes. We also prioritized ease of cleaning with a design that allows for turning the bladder inside out to clean hard-to-reach areas."

Whipsaw's ID peeps handled the concept visualization, aesthetics refinement, human factors and ergonomics analysis, functional invention and feature exploration, physical model making and validation, and the material and detail specification. Whipsaw's ME folks tackled the enclosure, mechanism and hardware engineering, engineering and optimization of physical user experiences, core engineering concept development, Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA) and the manufacturing and tooling strategy.

You can see more of Whipsaw's work here.