From Idea to Prototype: Where are Canithermo Garments Now?

Creating a thermal garment for dogs isn't just about drawing a design, finding a fabric, and filing a patent.

It's a long, demanding process, where each step dictates the next. And when one step gets stuck, the whole chain waits...

And right now... I'm waiting. A lot.

Let's start at the beginning! How does one even come to invent something?

From Drawing to Pattern

It all starts with a lack.

A feeling of powerlessness.

Then comes the Idea. A bit like an obvious truth. You almost feel stupid for not having thought of it before, and you frantically check every corner of the internet to see if it exists or not at all (often it does, but sometimes, as in my case, you're lucky!).

From this idea comes Observation. You observe how a dog moves, how it lies down, how it gets up. You note the areas that seem to suffer more than others. You notice the constraints that the body imposes and that the garment must not, under any circumstances, exacerbate. Then you research, read, look at existing medical publications on osteoarthritis, on joint and orthopedic pathologies, on growth inflammations, on existing solutions, on dogs in general. You cross-reference information with your professional nursing background (well, that's not mandatory. But it helped me a lot. Various and varied training courses like herbalism also helped, by the way), with what already exists for humans, and you also delve into the equine world.

From all these hours of observation come drawings (made with the acquired knowledge... or almost). On numerous scraps of paper lie shapes, proportions, attachment placements. Then patterns that give us prototypes.

Now, I've given you the "classy" and official version.

In reality, it was more like: asking a seamstress for help, realizing it wasn't working at all, that it wouldn't stay on the dog, and that with the slightest movement, it was on the floor. Rushing to her parents' house, wondering what to do. Panicking. A little, a lot. And ultimately doing what she does best: improvising.

Taking hostage all the old sheets she could gather.

Taking hostage all the dogs she could find on the farm.

Taking hostage all willing family members to hold and occupy the dogs.

Assembling pieces of sheets cut on all the previously taken hostage dogs.
Thanks to their unwavering patience and cooperation (or almost), these sheets were transformed into patterns, and then these patterns into prototypes.

The first prototypes are, of course, sewn by hand (as best as I could, with my knowledge), tested on real dogs to verify that the theory holds up to the idea.

The fabric assemblies are tested on me. Directly on my joints, with probe thermometers to ensure heat distribution. Having also tested a kitchen thermometer, know that it was not conclusive at all.

This is the work I carried out, prototype after prototype, failure after failure, going from crying fits to fits of laughter at the improbable behavior of some dogs (or my own) before being able to move on to the next step.

Industrialization: Transforming Craft into Reproducible

You should know that a craft pattern and an industrial pattern are really not the same thing.

The factory that Canithermo works with, in Portugal, will take the patterns and prototypes to transform them into industrial patterns. That is to say, precise technical files, identically reproducible, size after size.

This work then allows for the production of one model per size, to check that the shapes hold, that the attachments are well positioned, and that everything is functional.

This is a critical step! You don't start production without having validated each size on a real body!

All of this will lead us to the next step.

Pre-series: Real-world testing

Once these models are validated, we move on to pre-series. A small real production, with the final materials, the final finishes, the final closures, the labels, and everything else.

This is where everything confronts reality.

I go from a handmade prototype in my parents' living room to a garment as it will be in the hands of an owner, on the back of a dog, in real life.

These pre-series will then be subjected to a testing protocol supervised by a veterinary team.

Thirty days, on real dogs, with rigorous monitoring.

The objective is to scientifically prove and quantify what the first tests have already allowed me to observe.

Because a personal conviction, however strong, does not replace scientific data.

And today? Where are we?

Well...

Today...

I'm stuck.

I have redone the patterns cleanly.

I have filed the patent with the help of my intellectual property lawyer (fortunately he was there, it's such a convoluted business too!)

My patterns and prototypes were sent to the factory a month ago.

Except... Mondial Relay lost them.

A month of searching, follow-ups, with no resolution.

A package lost somewhere in the logistics chain, and with it, a month's delay on a schedule that I built step by step.

It's not a tragedy. It's annoying (pardon my language) but that's life.

It's a real constraint, as there are in any industrial creation process.

I document it here because Canithermo is also about that: showing the journey as it is, not as we would have preferred it to be...

The chain will resume. Patterns will be recreated if necessary (I still hope not to need to). Pre-series will arrive.

This project is my whole life.

Even before being a brand, even before being products, Canithermo is a promise.

The one I made to Fidji without being able to tell her.

The one I now make to all dogs who deserve better than what exists.

I will not give up.

In the next episode, I will tell you about the research and creation of fabrics.