It is not all that often I come across a product which I feel is truly innovative. It is even less common for me to find products that ring in at under twenty bucks. The LuminAID lamp ticks both boxes and even has a compelling humanitarian aid story behind it.
The brainchild of Anna Stork and Andrea Sreshta, two young and ambitious entrepreneurs and philanthropists, the LuminAID was designed to meet the challenged needs of natural disaster victims. After evaluating the devastating effects of earthquakes like the one that ravaged Haiti, they noticed one of the major setbacks to the recovery efforts was dealing with available light. With infrastructure in ruins, nighttime brought with it ominous darkness. The solution is––the LuminAID.
The LuminAID is a compact lantern built around a lithium battery, solar panel, LED light source and a clever inflatable globe to diffuse the light for a more useable light pattern. The entire system can be collapsed for easy shipping and transport and even fits in a shirt pocket. It’s waterproof, and even floats. It weighs less than 3-ounces, recharges in 7 hours in direct sunlight, and can illuminate a room or tent for up to 16 hours with two light output settings.
For the overlander, the benefits are obvious. You can store a campsite’s worth of LuminAID lanterns in a glove box, and as night approaches, you can scatter them about the perimeter of your campsite for a nice ambient glow. I now keep one in my first aid kit, one in my motorcycle tool bag, and through LuminAID’s Give Light, Get Light program, I donated two lights to further their humanitarian efforts. To date, they have distributed more than 10,000 lights to people in need around the globe.
It’s a great product, a cheap purchase, and a feel good story all wrapped up in one little inflatable bundle of light. You can’t help but switch it on and just feel good. Imagine what it’s like for those enduring the darkness of disaster. $19.95
