A final year product design student from Ross-on-Wye has developed a wearable self-defence item. 

22-year-old Chloe Davey was on the placement year of her Bachelor’s degree at Bournemouth University when she had the idea to create a self-defence bracelet, called ‘Hear Me Roar.’

Her placement year meant moving to London, working with a design firm. It was here where she felt surprisingly unsafe in comparison to being at home or in Bournemouth. 

Chloe said: “It was my first time in a big city, but then I realised I actually felt quite unsafe.

“I was getting my housemate to walk me the five minutes back from the tube station. I was leaving evenings out early and drinking less to make sure I was okay.”

Growing up in Herefordshire this isn’t a feeling Chloe was used to experiencing but quickly realised she may have been naive to assume she was safe even in Herefordshire.

“I started to wonder whether I should be taking safety precautions wherever I was and that maybe I had been a bit naive to think I was safe before,” she added. 

“Going back to university and presented being with the opportunity to design pretty much anything we wanted was all I needed to decide what I wanted to do about this.”

And ‘Hear Me Roar’ was created. The bracelet is designed with a deterrent sound and light feature and a communication feature that sends vibrations on command to another bracelet. 

“I realised there wasn’t much on the market for women to feel safe. It’s not the most high-tech product but it appears high-tech because the industry is so underdeveloped.”

Chloe explains how she would love to be in a position to sell the product, but she just hasn’t got the funding to do so and wishes bigger companies would make something similar. 

“There are massive companies, like Apple and Samsung for example, which are in a position to do something like this, much more high tech and effective, but they just aren’t. Big companies need to come forward and help.”

She will be attending design shows in the summer this year to talk to professionals about the design and is hoping a company may see the design and be interested in manufacturing it.

At the beginning of the design process, Chloe spent time interviewing women, police officers and companies about what needed to be done and was surprised by some of the stories she heard. 

“I was interviewing friends who I have known for years, and even some of their stories shocked me. Women’s safety isn’t something that is talked about enough, and this was obvious when I was learning about the experiences the people around me had had and I didn’t even know about them.

Growing up, Chloe attended an all-girls school and then was surprised when the majority of the people on her product design course were men, as well as a lot of the tutors. 

“It’s been interesting creating this product in a course full of men as I’ve had a lot of support from them all, which is something you don’t initially expect.

“Most said they had never really thought about it properly before and that they would like to help, but they are unsure how.”

“We need gender equality and to create a community of women. This starts with people talking about the issue and people getting educated on how it affects women. 

“I’m looking to create a narrative that sticks with people.

‘For me, I want someone to look at the product and notice what they are feeling rather than what they are thinking.”