Lupine manufactures the brightest and most expensive torches and bike lights for outdoor experiences. A highly specialized brand with 100% recognition in the mountainbike scene but close to 0% awareness in the rest of the world.

How can the brand become more relevant for a wider range of customers and be featured in blogs and magazines far beyond the outdoor scene? Knowing that classical communication alone cannot meet this challenge we decided to transform the product.

In a collaborative project we developed a very simple supplement that transforms the Lupine torch into a design piece of daily use - making it relevant for new, design-oriented users on a global scale.

As a result the Lupine Transformer Project stimulated a new discussion about the brand and its products. It engaged people far beyond the outdoor sports scene, won design awards and has been featured in famous design blogs and magazines all over the world. Driven by the success, the Project continued and the LT2 was developed in early 2015.

Questionnaires on current lupine customers and mountain bike heavy users in Germany led to the insight that more than 80% of heavy users know lupine and their products. But no one ever thought of using the torches as design pieces at home to free them from the drawer.

By bringing together students from Munich Academy of Fine Arts and fans of the Lupine Facebook community, new supplements for the Lupine Piko got developed collaboratively. After different stages of prototyping and exposing the prototypes to the community, a winner design got selected and manufactured in a small series.

The Lupine Transformers Project stimulated a new discussion about the brand and its products. It engaged people far beyond the outdoor spots scene and has been featured in famous design blogs and magazines all over the world.

On Facebook we received direct response from the people being involved in the selection of the winning design.

The project won famous design awards such as the red dot in 2014.

The first transformer in 2014 led to an increase in sales on the lupine Piko. The LT1 was sold out within one month.

With the LT2 coming to life in 2015, the story continued… the LT2 was sold out within 3 weeks. Ongoing communication efforts finally make the Lupine torches more relevant for design-oriented users.