Lulu West always loved sports, but found herself headed toward a career in biomedical engineering. That is, until she heard from a friend of a friend of her boss about the University of Oregon’s Sports Product Design program.
Growing up playing a wide range of sports, from flag football to swimming, West had her future planned out: go to the Olympics, then move to coaching with her side passion of art and design sprinkled in along the way.
Her plans shifted in high school when West discovered engineering and STEM, and started working in biomedical engineering and biomechanics in rehab sciences.
An internship with the Lakeshore Foundation, a paralympic training facility based in Birmingham, Alabama, reignited West’s passion for sports. The discovery of UO’s master’s program specialization in sports design and a meeting with the program’s founder, Susan Sokolowski, at the end of 2022 sealed West’s fate.
“It’s been really interesting merging the two (passions) together. Like I can do sport with design and do both in the same sphere. (It’s) really fun,” West said.
The Masters of Science in Sports Product Design, founded in 2016 by Sokolowski, is a two year masters program at UO’s Portland campus that aims to “develop graduates’ proficien(cy) in using science and creative problem-solving methods to innovate products that push the boundaries of society and the field of sport,” according to its website.
According to Sokolowski, in the 1990s, the state of Oregon became a hotbed of sports design following the opening of Nike headquarters and was one motivator for the founding of the program.
“At the time when the program was developed, there really wasn’t a local academic program that trained people in the field, so most people, like myself, were trained as designers, maybe more generically,” Sokolowski said. “But there wasn’t really a program out there that specialized in sports products and also really applied science to the discipline of design.”
With an emphasis on small student-to-professor ratios, the program admits up to 20 students with diverse academic backgrounds and areas of interests.
“Sometimes we admit engineers and sports scientists and other sort of tangentially related expertise because we feel product innovation comes at the cross hairs of intersectional thinking, of different ways of solving problems and looking at different aspects of sports products,” Solokowski said.
Research ranges depending on students’ specialization and interests, as the program gives students the flexibility to choose what they want to work on in the sports industry.
“We have students that come to our program that are very interested in working in specific sports, like running or basketball, but we (also) have students that are very interested in sizing and fit of all athletes, or sex and gender in sports, or kids,” Sokolwski said.
Jacob Kauff, a first-year student in the program with a passion for running, always loved sports but never thought he’d be working in the industry in this way.
“Running has done so much for me. So giving back to that sport, I’m really, really excited about,” Kauff said.
Kauff is studying aerodynamics in running, a field he feels is underexplored after Nike stopped researching ways to reduce aerodynamic drag on runners in 2016.
“There’s a big space there to be able to explore,” Kauff said. “I’ve been doing a lot of research into that and exactly what textures (in clothing) break up the air best and how that material innovation might be used for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.”
West, who’s in her final year of the program, is working to create compression shorts for T63 athletes, which are unilateral above-the-knee amputees in track and field.
“I’m creating compression shorts that work with the prosthetic socket and fit better around the prosthetic socket to prevent fabric bunching, irritation (and) sand entry during long jump events,” West said. “Imagine the sand entering the shorts because they don’t fit well and getting stuck in the socket. Amputation sites are notoriously super sensitive.”
West is also working on creating a spiked shoe for T63 high jumpers, focusing on balance and stability when jumping off the sound leg.
Both Kauff and West spoke about the uniqueness of the SDP. As the only program of its kind, the MS incorporates science and research into design. Students take classes in research methodology, biomechanics and physiology to understand how the body works and how to apply it to their designs.
Kauff and West also praised Sokolowski, with Kauff calling her a “legend within the industry.” On Feb. 27, Sokolowski was one of 61 women named to USA Today’s Women of the Year list.
“Being able to learn and get feedback directly from her is such an honor and such an opportunity and her expertise is something that I really appreciate,” Kauff said.
When reflecting on what the program has taught them, both students commented on the fast-paced environment of the curriculum and how sewing was one aspect of the design process they had to learn very quickly.
“Learning how to break (the process) down into discrete (steps), research, getting athlete insight, creating a plan, sketching, mood board (and) ideate… that kind of structuring of the creative process I think is the biggest thing that I’ve learned so far,” Kauff said.
Moving forward, Kauff is looking to continue researching aerodynamics and energy return while West is hoping to work in innovation for adaptive athletes after graduation.
With a large workload, the program is demanding but ever-evolving, as, according to West, each cohort experiences different things as the program grows to support students’ needs and feedback.
“I love it. I don’t regret a second of it,” West said in reference to the program.
