How we designed: PROBOOTS

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How we designed: PROBOOTS, our most popular recovery device

Out of all the journeys we’ve been on over the last two years, developing PROBOOTS, our state of the art pneumatic compression system, is one that we are most proud of. Although the experience designing, prototyping and producing our other products such as PROGUN Elite and PROCHARGE Tremor presented difficult obstacles, none came close to the two year journey developing PROBOOTS.

At PROTEC Recovery, we strive to make our recovery devices better and more simplistic than others by adapting and making changes to the design and functionality of the device itself. In this blog, we will tell you more about how we brought PROBOOTS from a concept to a physical device used by athletes across Europe.

The most interesting part of developing this product was that we didn’t start from scratch.

The technology behind the device itself existed in other forms, such as hair dryers and air pressure systems. We initially looked at how the individual components would work independently of each other before designing the structure of the hardware casing. It was incredibly important to us that not only would the internal make-up of PROBOOTS be durable, rigid and able to withstand user wear and tear, but lightweight and small enough that it could be taken anywhere.

We created 3D models and prototyped early editions that would lead us on a journey of iteration lasting almost two years. We made a number of changes to the layout, the circuit boards, and the pressure sensors to ensure that what we brought to market would be exactly what we had set out to build. During this process, it felt like we would never get there. That we’d never be able to achieve our initial designs.

But we did it.

We added new features that required months of testing, such as the latest Bluetooth 5.0 protocols to ensure PROBOOTS was ready for the modern world. The modern athlete. We knew that in the future, we’d have to continue our iteration process and future­-proof our devices in a way that market-leaders and innovators would be expected to.

So we done it up front.

We added our 7” LCD control panels with reactive touchscreen elements that powered the most intuitive customer experience on the market.

When building a product with multiple elements, it’s important to manage the individual design process of each element as one larger product. With PROBOOTS, there were three main areas where the product would be susceptible to not meeting our original design files. The control module. Then the sleeves themselves, and the element that brought the entire product together. The hosing and connection points.

We completely redesigned our connection points to ensure that it was easy to set up the system ahead of a recovery session. We spent 8 weeks remoulding the hosing to create a bespoke, single hose system that offered increased durability and flexibility so that users could flex the hosing into the most comfortable set up for them. Although it may seem a minor detail, undergoing this redesign ensured our PROBOOTS System was ready for the modern athlete and could withstand any pressure or excessive usage.

So confident are we in what we’ve developed, we stand over all compression systems for a period of two years with our exclusive PROCARE Warranty.

Now, after two years, PROBOOTS Compression System has become our best-selling recovery device thanks to its design, simplicity, quality, ease-of-use and affordability.

Learn more about PROBOOTS Compression System here.