2020 is a year that will be written down in history for the change it has brought – with a pandemic making us change our definition of normal to the ‘Black Lives Matter’ revolution that is bringing humanity to the forefront, there is no escaping change. Make a difference in whatever way you can – use your voice, use your platform, use your resources to support and uplift communities that shouldn’t be fighting for justice alone. But if you are planning on hitting the streets, do ensure you take some basic steps to safeguard yourself and the people around you. After all, we are all in this together!

Celine Setiadi’s Shield Satchel’s design logic is a rather interesting one. It doesn’t solve a conventional problem, but rather, brings about a balance in the scales of justice. With the amount of political unrest in today’s world, with people rallying to protest decisions made by our governments, our fellow citizens, or even civic bodies, the Shield Satchel becomes a personal safety device. While police forces can resort to violence in times of public unrest, the shield satchel is a citizen’s equivalent of riot gear. It hangs from your shoulder like a regular bag but opens up into a shield when needed, allowing you to defend yourself from attacks by others. The polycarbonate construction can defend most physical attacks from batons to rocks, while its clear construction makes sure you know when you’re being attacked so you can stay safe.

Designed almost like a holster for your hand-sanitizer, Go.C by WI Labs is a neat, ergonomic bottle that’s easy to carry, easy to use, and has one very clear mission statement – swift-action sanitization. Designed to be clipped to your pants (or your belt), the Go.C lets you press a trigger to deploy a spray of sanitizer. No using two hands, fumbling with bottle caps, and potentially losing bottle caps in the process. The Go.C sits in a place that’s easy to access with a single motion, and you’re just one-button press away from sanitization. In fact, the process is so intuitive and easy you could do it with one hand, pressing with your thumb and having the sanitizer spray on the rest of your fingers.

The LMP S2 by Mark Austen is the product of a new normal, where masks may just be as common as wearing shades because it’s sunny out. While we’re all working as a global community to battle this virus and end the shelter-at-home orders that are in place as a result, there’s no definitive date for when to stop wearing masks… and since we’re probably going to be wearing them for at least the foreseeable future, Mark Austen believes consumers deserve better than the N95 masks we have out there today. The LMP S2 improves on the N95 by ditching the fabric construction for silicone, which isn’t just comfortable, it’s easier to clean and is food-grade. Making the entire mask from silicone ensures a perfect, practically air-tight fit every time, while the soft elastomeric material is much easier on the skin, allowing you to wear the mask for longer without feeling any discomfort.

Try an innovative way to share your thoughts with the Pix backpack by Margaret Rimek. Pix is aimed at individuals who wish to stand out and dare to be different! Packed into the front of the rucksack is a screen that is capable of creating up to 16.5 million color combinations… so you are only limited by your imagination! What’s displayed is controlled from the user’s phone, where they have the option of selecting images, animations of games directly from the library, or express their creativity by creating their own! Not only is it a fun and unique feature, but it can also be extremely useful, showing your support in a digital way!

A phone with a low battery is scary, but you know what’s truly scary? A power-bank with a low battery. It’s a good thing Nendo’s Denqul charger builds in a failsafe. With an extendable baton, a swivel hinge, and an internal dynamo, you can quite literally charge your power-bank with a little kinetic energy. Just swivel the baton and the circular motion gets the power-bank charging. A couple of minutes of vigorous swiveling should not only be a great substitute for cardio but should also give your phone a little juice.

The purpose of the Mahaton Bottle is two-fold, though our intent here is to ensure you have a supply of clean drinking water on you. With a UV-LED embedded in its lid, Mahaton gives you the assurance of pure, sterilized water that doesn’t contain any harmful bacteria in it, while its slick, beautiful design provides an alternative to plastic throw-away bottles that aren’t just harmful to the environment, but are bad for you in the long run too. Designed to be pure and permanent, Mahaton keeps your water clean all the time, sterilizing not just the water but also the bottle itself against bacteria from the air around you, or from sharing your bottle with someone else.

Iris Liu & Lillian Wang’s FlexSolar Backpack ensures you generate and use electricity in an eco-friendly manner while protesting. Afterall climate change is still a problem present in the world. With Flextech’s powerful, weatherproof solar panel integrated into it, just being outdoors is enough to generate electricity! Designed to seamlessly integrate (and show off) Flextech’s solar panels, the bag comes with all the features you’d want from a good backpack. Compartmentalized storage, waterproof design, anti-theft locking, RFID blocking pockets for your cards, and integrated USB and headphone jack for juicing your devices and listening to music on the go. What steals the show, however, remains Flextech’s solar panels. Designed to be hardy and flexible, the panels are waterproof, dustproof, and generally weatherproof. Designed with an undulating texture, the panels can capture solar power efficiently at any time of the day, no matter where they’re facing

Vollebak creates with a material so resistant to wear and tear, it’s used on the international space station. The ceramic hoodie comes with an aramid layer (Kevlar is an aramid) and is further coated with a layer comprising more than 60,000 matte-black ceramic particles that allow it to be theoretically destruction-proof, but still breathable and flexible. The hoodie builds on one of Vollebak’s most popular items, the Ceramic T-Shirt, which was developed in 2017 and has, since then, been taken into jungles, warzones, and live volcanoes. The Ceramic Hoodie is designed to be protective yet comfortable. The fabric is tough but breathable and comes with an inner fleece lining and waterproof zippers. Each hoodie is equipped with a layer of ceramic coating that’s as thin as a human hair, and soft to the touch, but is abrasive-resistant enough to make it the toughest garment not just on earth, but arguably on the space station too!

First aid kits are essential, especially when we can’t really predict when a peaceful protest may turn violent. However, lugging around the usual box-like first aid kits can be quite cumbersome. Hence VSSL launched it’s new First Aid Kit, built for extreme environments. One look at it, and it’s hard to believe it’s a first aid kit since it looks like a regular flashlight! Created from military-grade aluminum, the indistinct looking device functions as a first aid kit, flashlight, and compass. Far from your typical first aid kit, it features a sleek fire red body measuring 9 and 3/8 inches with a diameter of 2 inches. One end of the VSSL’s First Aid Kit boasts a powerful 200 Lumens LED light, it’s flooding beam is strong enough to light up large spaces. The flashlight has four lighting modes: bright, dim, red, and SOS. From a subtle dim mode, it can jump to an alert SOS mode, imperative in sending out distress calls.

Now we know protesting can get tiring and not everyone can fold their legs and sit comfortably. In comes the Lex Chair. Astride Bionix’s Lex Chair sits on your person (strapped around your waist and thighs), weighing just over a kilogram thanks to its aluminum construction. However, designed to bear extreme loads of weight, the Lex can take over 120 kilograms of weight without breaking a sweat. The aluminum legs can be deployed using a simple push, and then just lean back while the Lex falls into position, giving you instant seating anywhere you go. When not in use, the legs slide up into their designated zones, allowing for full freedom of movement while even letting you carry a backpack.

Black Lives Matter and we stand in support of the movement by making donations to the cause. But don’t forget, we still have a pandemic to deal with. So while you protest and show your support, let’s do it in a responsible and peaceful manner. Let this protest redefine the impact a responsible protest can make.