Santa finally makes a grand style statement with his brand new ride. Christened as the Kringle Sleigh, this gorgeous specimen designed by Steuart Padwick (for online store Made.com) surely puts the old flying vehicle to enormous shame. Not that we are complaining; we never liked those loud splashes of red.
The very first thing any Santa sleigh enthusiast (if there was one) would notice is the incorporation of more linearity and streamlining in the Kringle Sleigh. This design consideration acts as an antithesis to those improbable twirly angles and elaborate embellishments we encounter in postcard drawn sleighs. By the designer’s own admission, the new approach sort of endows a ‘very clean and simple’ style to the form factor.
This simplicity of the aesthetics is derived from the combination of the individual components of the Kringle Sleigh. On top of that list comes the curved wooden section that is crafted from white ash salvaged from northern Scandinavia. The artful curvature is achieved by a steam bending process, where the moistened wood is bent and then dried to be fixed in its place. It is then finished with roasted chestnut veneer, while the rear section is coated in candy cane lacquer.
As for the seating arrangement, the Kringle Sleigh boasts of some ritzy touches with the incorporation of a snug seat made from the sub-arctic dwelling Dall sheep’s wool. The comfort factor is further improved with reinforced titanium alloy springs taking care of the suspension credentials.
Finally, the Kringle Sleigh also has some nifty technological features. These include a lunar panel (along the top part of the curved wooden section) that generates clean energy from the reflection of moonlight for juicing up the sleigh’s GPS and warming the seat. Moreover, the adjoining skis are plated in phosphor bronze, which allows the sleigh to nimbly navigate undulating terrains, thus improving upon the vehicle’s aerodynamic quality.
So, the end of the day, the Kringle Sleigh is not only about its ‘clean’ essence; the visual scope is credibly backed up by an assortment of advanced attributes. And, as expected so much awesomeness could never come cheap. Well, in that regard, the Christmas-y contraption retails for £2,512 (around $4,100).
For more details, please check out Made’s product page.
