Origami

Hard-sided pop-up pickup campers and toppers seem to be a trend of the early 2020s. Hardsider is deep at work on the sleekest version yet, pairing a military-grade truck rack with a removable pop-up sleeper roof, LED lighting and Starlink internet.

If you're trying to distribute environmental sensors over a wide area by dropping them from a drone, you don't want them all landing in the same place. With that fact in mind, University of Washington scientists have created origami "microfliers."

Levante upscales origami-inspired portable solar charging with systems that expand like wings to multiple times their packed size. With hundreds of watts of power, the units are an intriguing solution for RVing, sailing and off-grid homesteading.

Reaching far beyond cutesy paper sculptures, origami has underpinned some cutting-edge breakthroughs. Sego Innovations uses it to create the most packable solar charger around, with a panel that packs down to an eighth of its size in about a second.

At the same time it's been launching portable kayaks, Oru has been quietly working to apply its origami construction to other products. It's now introducing camp furniture that packs small and flat, quickly building into a multifunctional campsite.

Back in 2020 we first heard about the SUS1, a prototype folded-steel electric scooter made by Swedish startup Stilride. Well, the company has now announced full specs and pricing on the production version of the vehicle, called the Stilride 1.

Most three-dimensional glass objects are produced via either a molding, blowing or 3D-printing process. Chinese scientists, however, have devised a technique of folding such items into shape – and it has some key advantages over other methods.

Six years ago we first heard about the MyCanoe, a two-person canoe that folds up like origami for transit and storage. Its makers are now back on Kickstarter with the smaller, lighter MyCanoe Solo 2.

While there are now a number of packable computer mice, they're typically just smaller, harder-to-use versions of regular mice. The Air.0 is different – it's a full-size, origami-inspired Bluetooth mouse that folds flat for stowage.

The Raba helmet from Nature Mobility looks to be an intriguing foldable helmet design. It relies on a series of pre-folds to pack flat and fit naturally in a backpack or handbag. It then dials into a three-dimensional helmet in a matter of seconds.

When we last heard about Belgian startup Onak, it was debuting an improved version of its origami-style folding canoe. Now, Onak is back with a considerably smaller and less costly boat, called the Bato.

Ever since Oru introduced its first origami-style folding kayak back in 2012, other brands have come out with boats that were claimed to be lighter and more compact. Oru has now addressed that competition, with its sub-$700 18-lb (8 kg) Lake kayak.