DerpyPro Improving Blog Post- Araceli Rodriguez

Since my last blog post we have been improving how our prototype was going and the progress. Well DerbyPro has been working on brainstorming on ideas on how we could improve them. Our first prototype was made out of materials that were provided by the teacher which were things like cotton balls, elastic bands, tape, and many more materials. Our first prototype was made by a black sock which we included cotton balls for the cushion of the ankle, we added straps for the support and the grey tape on th sides was for stiffness. But eventually we had some struggles come our way and we had to fix them. Some problems we faced was the fitting balls that we used for the cushion, we needed to somehow stick the cotton balls to the sock so in this case we used liquid glue, which later on caused the sock to be very stiff and hard to put on, although it could have protected the ankle but it was very difficult to put on and take off.

As time passed we decided to make a new prototype to see what we can do differently, we took like a couple of days to brainstorm to see what we could change since we had gotten new materials we decided to use newer things to improve it. We changed many things like the cushion, instead of using the cotton balls, we used a type of material that is cushion but wasn’t needed to be glued since we were using to socks and we put the cushion between the two socks. We also used two socks instead of one sock and we sewed them together except the top since we needed to put the cushion material inside. After that was done we added also straps that were stretchable on the top of the ankle brace to add support and also so that the person wearing it won’t feel like the ankle is falling off their ankle while playing derby. We used another strap and the bottom of the ankle brace to also add support and so that the ankle stays in place. Lastly we cut pieces of cardboard to have on the sides but they were placed in between the socks also but on the interior and exterior part of the ankle so that the prototype can actually protect the ankle.

Patting inside of second prototype

The second prototype

In the future our company DerbyPro hopes to have feedback just like in the past we had professional players that we got to interview which was very helpful feedback because we got many questions that were unanswered. DerbyPro hopes to get more newer material to improve our prototype and make it more presentable.