Press Release
Wee Cat Harness by Shihchang Hsiao Wins the Silver A' Design Award in Pet Care, Toys, Supplies and Products for Animals Design
Shihchang Hsiao honored for pet care, toys, supplies and products for animals design by the international grand jury of the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 25, 2025 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has announced that Wee Cat Harness by Shihchang Hsiao, designed for Hulumao, has been granted the Silver A' Design Award in the Pet Care, Toys, Supplies and Products for Animals Design category. The recognition forms part of the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition and was decided through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who scored anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
The Silver A' Design Award Explained
The Silver A' Design Award celebrates top-tier designs that embody excellence and innovation. This award acknowledges creations that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also highly functional, reflecting the designer's deep understanding and skill. Silver A' Design Award recipients are recognized for their contribution to raising industry standards and advancing the practice of design. Their work often incorporates original innovations and elicits a strong emotional response, making a notable impact on the improvement of everyday life.
More About Wee Cat Harness
This pet harness is designed for cats allowing them to go on walks outdoors. It uses a continuous strip of nylon webbing, two soft pads, two fasteners and a triangle ring. It requires almost no labor-intensive sewing because a small fixture was designed to form and hold the webbing at various angles to facilitate construction. The resulting harness is very light weight: 35g. This is appropriate for cats, who need the harness to be as light as possible. The harness fastening system uses a slide buckle for instant release instead of the more common center release buckle.
About Shihchang Hsiao
Shih-Chang Hsiao has always been highly interested in design since a young age. Not long after graduating from school, he began working as a freelancer on product design projects. Currently, he is a senior industrial designer. Most of his design projects focus on the aesthetics of electronics devices. After many years of experience in practical design projects, Hsiao believes his greatest strength in industrial design is to find solutions for the conflict between design and engineering.
Award Record
This recognition makes Shihchang Hsiao a winner of 4 A' Design Awards. The awards were granted between the 2016 - 2017 and the 2024 - 2025 editions of the A' Design Award & Competition.
About the A' Pet Care, Toys, Supplies and Products for Animals Design Award
The A' Pet Care Design Award is an international design competition recognizing good pet supplies, toys and product designs by designers and brands worldwide. It is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to pet care designers, animal toy designers, pet supply manufacturers and pet care brands from all countries. Typical entries include pet food, pet apparel, pet beds, feeding bowls, litter boxes and pet carriers. The awarded pet supply designs are published at https://dezigners.org/design-category/pet-care
About A' Design Award & Competition
Organized annually since 2008, A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The philanthropic mission of the A' Design Award is to advance society through good design, by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Nominations are peer reviewed and evaluated anonymously by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. Eligible laureates receive the A' Design Prize, which includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, uploading a work and receiving a preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. More information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://dezigners.org/162606
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/162606
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!162606
- Laureate Profile: https://dezigners.org/d/169866
- Further Information from the Laureate: https://www.lecheer.com.tw/en/
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Wee Cat Harness
- Function
- Cat Harness
- Category
- Pet Care, Toys, Supplies and Products for Animals Design
- Discipline
- Product Design
- Industry
- Packaging & Retail and Furniture & Home
- Colors
- Dark Slate Gray, Black, Dim Gray, Gray and Silver
- Images
- 5
- Client
- Hulumao
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Shihchang Hsiao
- Country
- Taiwan (China)
- Recognition
- Silver A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2024 - 2025
- Design ID
- #162606
Credits
- Team
- Yuluen Huang
- Image Credits
- 5: photographer Shihchang Hsiao, 2024
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- It mainly uses a continuous strip of nylon webbing and a few accessories to form this cat hardness and also provides one-size-fits-all approach. It requires almost no labor-intensive sewing. The resulting harness is very light weight: 35g or 1.2 oz. This is appropriate for cats, who need the harness to be as light as possible. The harness fastening system uses a slide buckle for instant release instead of the more common center release buckle.
- Inspiration
- In urban areas, it is common to see dogs on a leash running outside to release their energy. By contrast, house cats usually sit by a window and look outside, seemingly in a daze. Although cats can be skittish, they might also enjoy being outside to satisfy their curiosity. Unfortunately, many pet harnesses on the market are designed only with dogs in mind. Cat owners have limited choices and often must settle for the smallest pet harness available for their cats.
- Research
- Most pet harnesses on the market are designed with dogs in mind. Many involve complex construction and heavy duty sewing and are too heavy for cats to use. The webbing on some cheap harnesses is too thin and cannot prevent the cats from escaping. There are also a few holster- or vest-style harnesses available. These are better at preventing the cat from slipping out, but few cats are willing to have their bodies covered in so much material. Cats are sensitive animals. Therefore, the design emphasis of this harness is to be as light as possible, while being easy to put on and take off and preventing the cat from slipping out.
- Challenge
- The biggest design challenge was how to utilize a continuous strip of webbing to construct a sturdy harness frame while avoiding laborious sewing. Eventually, the designer found that the webbing can be folded in different angles and shifted in other directions like the pipes inside of a building. Therefore, a small fixture was designed to form and hold the webbing at various angles to facilitate construction.
- Realization and Technology
- Production of the harness is quite simple. The fasteners and webbing are sourced from available components on the market. The soft pads are custom-made using a computerized sewing machine. The webbing is threaded through pre-cut slots on the pads. Next, the fasteners are fixed onto the webbing. Finally, the harness is assembled with a little sewing.
- Operation and Interaction
- For initial use, one snap button on the front and one slide buckle on rear webbing loops are unfastened so there is enough space to slide the cat’s head through. After the harness is on, the fasteners are re-secured. Next, the webbing is adjusted to fit the cat’s neck and body. This adjustment only needs to be made once. Finally, the webbing on the cat’s chest is tightened by pulling on the strap. The harness is now ready to use
- Project Duration and Location
- The project started in March 2024 in Taipei and finished in July 2024 in Taipei.
- Specifications
- Length: 11cm Weight: 35g
- Keywords
- cat, cat harness, pet, dog, cat leash, hulumao, cat carrier, cat backpack, outdoor, traveling
