How we designed SALVADOR?

MICRO NAP

But let's turn our heads back a bit so I can explain how this cushion was born and why it is so different from those found in stores. First confession, I admit that at the beginning we had not at all imagined that SALVADOR would be so versatile. Yes, at the very beginning, our intention was to create a cushion to allow micro-naps on an office chair! But no matter, this intention was enough to allow us to design a new cushion. Why? Because it had all the necessary ingredients to define the framework of intervention: a seat with a backrest, the need to support the head so that it does not fall to the right or left, finally, the desire to find the soft comfort of a pillow, in miniature.

BALL IN THE CENTER

Our first intuition was to remove the material located behind the neck. To be well installed, if we consider the anatomy, in particular the vertical column and the alignment of the cervical vertebrae, we can easily realize that we must avoid having material behind the neck because it will push your head forward and force you to tilt it (this is the problem with U-shaped cushions!). For us, the first solution was therefore to form a cushion in a tube of fabric that would be divided in two by a central seam. Exit the bulge behind the neck, you can keep the cervical vertebrae well stacked. There is no material pushing your head forward.

GOING INTO A SPIN

But this central clearance is not enough to create an ergonomic cushion capable of properly supporting the head. This is where we had a second intuition (after several user tests anyway!) and we had the idea of ​​twisting the two ends of the cushion. A real magic wand! The twist creating a slight but sufficient slope to pleasantly support your skull.
If we go into anatomical detail, it is the occipital bone (the one located at the back/bottom) and the left and right temporal bone (behind your temples) that come to rest on the cushion. These bones form a half crown at the back of your head and it is precisely because this entire part is supported that you have an immediate feeling of appeasement.
After a few minutes of use, your neck muscles, ceasing to force to support your skull, begin to relax. If you prolong the experience, the muscle relaxation will logically descend to the level below, to the trapezius , then the shoulders (the deltoids). But you will say that we all have a different morphology! It's true, but I will explain to you why SALVADOR adapts to all morphologies.

PROFESSIONAL DEFORMATION

There is a somewhat counterintuitive idea in design that tricks your brain into thinking that an object is ergonomic because it fits your anatomy perfectly. Let's be clear, this is a figment of the imagination.

In fact, let's take the simple example of a pen. For you to be comfortable writing with it, there are two important criteria: its length, which must be sufficient to exceed the intersection between your thumb and index finger when you hold it in your hand, and its diameter, which must be thick enough for a good grip but not too much because the thickness would quickly make you lose dexterity. That's all. There is no point in the body of the pen precisely matching the shape of your fingers gathered around it to hold it. That would also be very uncomfortable because we all have different hands and fingers and what would work for one, would no longer work for the other.

But let's get back to our cushion. To adapt to different profiles, it's very simple: it's the cushion that deforms and flexibly adapts to the shape of your neck. And this adaptation is due to a key element: the filling. Exit the polystyrene balls that offer as much support as a ball of slime, moving apart at the slightest pressure (totally depriving you of support) and which make you sweat after a few minutes by sending your body heat back to you (normal, polystyrene is an insulator! it has no place in a cushion).

At Petits Cadors, we use a bedding fiber manufactured to fill high-end pillows. A light and puffy fiber that looks like snowflakes. It is thanks to this that SALVADOR perfectly hugs the contours of your neck and provides good support for the skull. You can relax, it is your cushion that adapts to you.

The cherry on the cake is that this fiber is made from recycled plastic collected from waterways. Each SALVADOR cushion contains the equivalent of 4 plastic bottles that would have ended up at the bottom of the ocean (we prefer them to be in our cushions).

HEAD ELSEWHERE

As I said at the beginning of this article, we imagined SALVADOR to take micro-naps in the workplace, on a simple office chair. But we quickly realized that this cushion is in fact “all-terrain” and can go far beyond the professional setting. Very quickly, it was used to watch television, read in bed or in an armchair, bask in the sun in a deckchair or hammock, go to the beach, take a nap in the grass after a picnic or even settle in comfortably for long phone conversations with friends! Today, we can say that SALVADOR has become the everyday cushion to take care of your neck, day after day, as soon as the activity (or break) allows it.

As you will have understood, if you regularly have pain in the neck (e.g. cervicalgia), are prone to stiff necks or simply want to take care of your body and protect it from daily tension in the neck, SALVADOR is the perfect cushion.
The hardest part is choosing the model.😉