Lulu West
MS in Sports Product Design, 2025
Capstone Project: ...
Category: ...
Lulu was raised in Niceville, Florida, where her love of water-based sports began, such as competitive swimming, water polo, and diving. As a teenager, Lulu moved to Alabama for her competitive swimming career but faced a severe setback from a spinal cord injury. This pushed her to explore other outlets, such as weightlifting, hiking, and yoga, and sparked her passion for rehabilitative sciences and athletic performance. She pursued a Biomedical Engineering degree at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, focusing on biomechanics and neuroengineering.
During her undergraduate years, Lulu researched biomechanics, lower-limb kinesiology, and sports performance, resulting in an internship at the Lakeshore Foundation during the 2022 World Games. After training camps with Team USA Wheelchair Basketball and Team USA Wheelchair Rugby, Lulu was motivated to combine her love of design with her passion for rehabilitation sciences. This resulted in a unique capstone project – a performance-enhancing sports chair cushion for high-point wheelchair athletes.
Lulu is driven to create a more inclusive and accessible athletic community, challenging traditional body standards in athletic design. She aims to innovate and design exceptional sports products for athletes with disabilities, female athletes, and athletes who challenge body stereotypes.
