NEST.
A foldable gathering table designed to reconnect people with nature, food, and each other.
Outdoor cooking and dining, reimagined for how people actually gather — not just how they camp.
Designed for car campers
— people who drive to get there, and stay long enough to mean it.
A foldable gathering table designed to reconnect people with nature, food, and each other.
NEST
SPECIFICATIONS
Category
Seating
Tabletop material
Frame material
Diameter (assembled)
Weight
Power
Carry state
Bamboo/Ocean-Bound rHDPE
800W integrated induction
Folds to compact cylinder
Outdoor furniture
Recycled aluminum
4–6 people
120 cm
~8.2 kg
OVERVIEW
What does gathering
look like after two
years apart?
Post-pandemic, the outdoor recreation market surged — but the gear didn't evolve. Camping equipment was still designed for efficiency and solo use, not for the social rituals that make the experience meaningful.
NEST is a Patagonia brand concept that addresses this gap. A foldable, circular table built for shared cooking and dining outdoors. Not another piece of equipment to pack — an invitation to come together.
BRAND ALIGNMENT
Patagonia's values,
built into the object.
NEST extends Patagonia's philosophy into a product category they haven't touched — social outdoor furniture — while staying true to every founding value.
Worn Wear
Design for repairability, not replacement.
↓ NEST applies this as
Modular, replaceable panels and aluminum joints — serviceable without tools, designed to last decades.
1% for the Planet
Every product must justify its environmental footprint.
↓ NEST applies this as
Bamboo (carbon-sequestering)/PLA tabletop + fully recyclable aluminum frame. Low impact, high durability.
Community
Products that bring people together around shared values.
Circular form with no head of the table. The cooking ritual placed at the social center — not to the side.
↓ NEST applies this as
MARKET RESEARCH
Outdoor gear is a $46B market growing at 25% a year.
None of it is designed for the ritual of gathering.
$ 46B
US outdoor cooking equipment market projected by 2028 — 25% CAGR
54 %
of Americans participate in outdoor recreation annually — a sustained record
2 ×
Growth in social camping and group outdoor dining over the last decade
USER RESEARCH — 2 INTERVIEWS
Outdoor gear is built
for function. Not for connection.
Andrew, 32
PROGRAMMER · 3–4 TRIPS/MO
Camping veteran
Lina, 28
ACCOUNTANT · 1-2 TRIPS/MO
Couples camping
Group cooking
Group social
“
When we cook together outdoors, we get that feeling back — 90% of campers love to cook because it's fun, energizing. We can work together, help each other. There's a great sense of accomplishment at the end of the meal.
— ANDREW, INTERVIEW
“
Cooking together is the fastest way to warm up with people — even people you know well. We all did our jobs, and at the end we enjoyed the fruits of our joint efforts. That's the part no gear has ever been designed for.
— LINA, INTERVIEW
”
”
86%
of campers cook outdoors
as a group activity
54 %
prefer round tables
for shared interaction
63%
say traditional gear
limits social dining
"How might we design an outdoor product that facilitates gathering as its primary function — not as a side effect?"
DESIGN OPPORTUNITY
Both users named shared cooking as the catalyst for genuine connection
— yet every piece of outdoor gear they owned was designed for individual use. No product was built to facilitate the ritual itself.
DESIGN PROCESS
From insight to form.
01
FORM DECISION
Why a circle?
RECTANGULAR
Hierarchy built in
Everyone is equal
CIRCULAR
72% of campers prefer round tables for group dining.
No head of the table means no default host — everyone participates in the same ritual.
02
ENGINEERING DECISION
120 cm → fits in one hand.
The folding logic divides the circular top into two equal 180° desktops. Fold the legs parallel inward, and the entire product can be easily divided into three parts, light enough and easy to install.
03
CMF DECISION — 2 VERSIONS
Same form. Two material stories.
Rather than a single finish, I developed two CMF directions — each aligned with a different facet of Patagonia's identity.
Both use recycled aluminum for the frame. The tabletop material is where the stories diverge.
04
PRODUCT INTEGRATION DECISION
Cooking at the social center.
A standard camping stove sits to the side — outside the social circle. The 800W induction module is embedded at the geometric center of NEST, so the act of cooking happens inside the gathering, not adjacent to it. The module is removable, so the table works equally as a pure dining surface.
Battery-powered induction, not gas. No open flame, zero emissions, no fuel canister to carry. Aligns with Patagonia's no-carbon ethos and is safer for group cooking with children present.
