{
  "id": 8903497,
  "title": "This tote bag turns into a life jacket just in case the subway floods",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/21/this-tote-bag-turns-into-a-life-jacket-just-in-case-the-subway-floods",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-09-21T10:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Fast Company",
    "slug": "fast-company",
    "url": "https://www.fastcompany.com/91609306/this-tote-bag-turns-into-a-life-jacket-just-in-case-the-subway-floods"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A new tote bag conceives a clever twist: when the subway floods, it transforms into a life jacket. Otherwise, it appears to be a regular bag. However, in a dire situation, you can unfold it into a vest, don it over your head, and pull a cord to inflate it into a flotation device.\n\nThe conceptual product, created by a group of artists, highlights the absurdity of adjusting to life amid climate change. Phil le Brun, one of the project's creators, remarked, \"The whole premise of this thing is, why the hell should this even exist?\"\n\nLe Brun and his collaborators envisioned the project, dubbed Lifeline, after witnessing the havoc wrought by flooding on New York City subways. The city's aging subway infrastructure is particularly susceptible to water overflow, and climate change, with its more intense storms, exacerbates the issue. Riders have had to cling to walls or wade through knee-deep water during flooded station incidents. A 2025 video showcases a train pulling into a station as water cascades onto the platform and begins to seep into the train itself. Some passengers gasp in shock, while others remain unfazed.\n\nLe Brun expressed that society may have grown accustomed to such extreme and dystopian conditions, considering them a part of everyday life. This sentiment resonates with various climate impacts, such as wildfire smoke, heat waves, hurricanes, and even crumbling mountains.\n\nHowever, the risk of catastrophic flooding in New York's subways remains uncertain. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has poured billions into resilience efforts since Hurricane Sandy in 2012. In contrast, China faced a tragic incident in 2021 when a subway tunnel flooded, resulting in 14 fatalities.\n\nThe artists behind Lifeline aimed to provoke thought about how climate change is reshaping daily life. They also questioned the effectiveness of solutions, including the ways designers tackle problems. The tote bag serves as a provocation rather than a practical product. Industrial designers, Le Brun noted, tend to focus on solving problems individually with one product or solution. However, the real-world solutions are far more complex.\n\nFor subway flooding, possible remedies span infrastructure redesign to broader political changes, such as aggressively reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Le Brun emphasized that the current system and government seem disconnected from the climate emergency, stating, \"At the moment, the system and the overarching government just feels completely at odds with what’s happening and what we’re seeing in the world in terms of climate emergency.\"",
  "summary": "A new tote bag has a hidden feature: In a flood, it doubles as a life jacket. Most of the time, it’s an ordinary bag. But in an emergency, you can unfold it into a vest, slip it over your head, and tug a cord to inflate it. The conceptual product, designed by a collective of artists, points to the absurdity of adjusting to life with climate change. “The whole premise of this thing is, why the…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}