Last academic year, 2025 Product Design seniors Kailey Chaffee, Morgan Nguyen, and Audrey Saing started to develop gear for Special Olympics Oregon athletes as a part of Rachel Volker's PD 487 studio class. The goal? To make training and competition more accessible for these athletes by designing innovative gear to help. Even after graduation, the three A+D students are working hard to finish their concepts. Thanks in part to funding and support from the Oregon Innovation Challenge, the three are able to continue pushing their designs forward. Chaffee and Nguyen also received a Michael and Stacy Koehn Award to provide seed funding for product design student ideas.
For cornhole, Nguyen and Chaffee are developing beanbag launchers for athletes with limited mobility. The original design was developed utilizing a unique set of requirements: no electronics, athletes must be able to launch their bean bags independently, and safety is paramount. The duo were able to test full-scale models with able-bodied cornhole players over the summer and plan to resume testing with Special Olympics athletes in the fall. Chaffee and Nguyen's ultimate goal is not to launch a company but to provide free blueprints so teams can easily build affordable launchers that meet standard specifications.
Saing worked with the Special Olympics Multnomah County power lifting team where she would find inspiration for her innovative posture aid, called Align. Some Special Olympics athletes can experience difficulty in controlling their posture, whether due to hypotonia or hypermobility and hyperflexibility, which can lead to pain or injury for power lifters. Saing's posture aid looks to answer the needs of these athletes by providing a product that can help maintain an athlete's posture through the use of a rigid plastic piece in the back that acts like a guide to provide awareness of the body’s position. The sporty, moisture-wicking vest features adjustable straps to pull back the athlete’s shoulders and helps with core engagement.
Like Nguyen and Chaffee, Saing is continuing to tweak and test her gear while working as a product development and design assistant with Portland clothing brand Bridge & Burn, and her immediate plans are to continue her work with athletes as they gear up for the new season in January.
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