Development and testing of auxetic shoulder straps for sport backpacks

Abstract Auxetic foams and lattices are a promising class of materials characterised by a negative Poisson's ratio that can be used for the development of next-generation sports equipment due to their outstanding properties (e.g., multi- impact behaviour and flexibility). We present an application of these materials in backpacks as a viable alternative to current systems with improved comfort. auxetic designs have been used to create ergonomic shoulder straps for trekking backpacks to improve their thermal comfort by exploiting the expansion of the auxetic cells under tensile load. Further optimisation of the proposed application can be achieved in the future by using the collected data in analytical models to predict the behaviour of these systems.