This story is the first part in a multi-part award season series celebrating the annual awards earned by student cohorts.
Designers. Leaders. Innovators. Award-winners. Students in the Master of Science in Sports Product Design program earn many different titles, thanks to their skills, rigorous education, and the help of a passionate faculty. Award season proves the efficacy of their work, as these designers earn awards in top design competitions, such as the FIT Sports Design Awards. Each year, the FIT Sport Design Awards seeks to recognize the industry’s most innovative sports equipment and apparel with professional and student categories. The 2025 awards saw eight students earn honors for a myriad of different designs.
FIT Sports Design Awards 2025
UO Sports Product Design Award Winners
Chloe Burchard
Scope
Scope is a futuristic pair of snowboarding goggles that merges the rising demand for "smart" products with the growing need for sustainable, responsible design. Inspired by biomimicry, the lens and strap technology draw from the remarkable vision of the jumping spider and the adaptive form of the brittle star.
Playing into future trends of gear that is both "designed to die" and enhanced by "the digital layer," Scope blends cutting-edge tech with biodegradability. These smart goggles capture footage, analyze riding metrics, and enhance visibility with zoom-in capabilities and dynamic tint adjustments, empowering riders with cutting edge technology while leaving a lighter footprint on the planet.
Emily Lacomba
Strung
Designed for soccer players with larger cup sizes, this sports bra reimagines Adidas STRUNG technology—an industry-first textile and creation process— to high-impact, multidirectional movement. Originally developed for footwear, STRUNG maps and places each thread based on athlete data to optimize support, flexibility, and breathability.
Breast displacement patterns were analyzed to inform the structure, with three layers of varying elasticity strung onto a laser-cut wooden template. Clear, flexible Bemis was heat-pressed to lock in the elastic, allowing the structure to recoil and shrink. Once worn, the bra cocoons and supports the chest without excessive compression or restriction.
Heather Blaikie
Elero Nordic Sit-Ski Race Suit
The Elaero Sit-Ski Race Suit is a high-performance solution for Nordic sit-ski athletes, designed to address both athletic demands and comfort needs. It features Recycled Polyester/Spandex Knit for stretch, breathability, and thermoregulation, while Gore-Tex Bonded Spandex Knit provides weather protection in critical areas like the lower legs. Silicone-backed Elastic Trim ensures a secure, adaptive fit for optimal function.
Purposeful features like the SeamlessFit Back Panel and MobilityFlex side panels enhance comfort and mobility, while ComfortSeal bonded seams reduce chafing and improve aerodynamics. Thumb loops and lightweight panels in critical areas minimize bulk and maximize efficiency. The Elaero Suit integrates innovation, precision, and sustainability, offering sit-ski athletes unmatched comfort and performance on race day.
Jacob Kauff
The Ventus Speedsuit
he Ventus Speedsuit is a distance-specific track and field suit designed for the hot conditions anticipated at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. In modern track and field, speedsuits have become a standard uniform option, often recognized as form-fitting, one-piece uniforms. The Ventus Speedsuit incorporates aerodynamic technology to reduce drag while simultaneously enhancing thermoregulation through evaporative cooling.
Specifically, the Ventus Speedsuit features 3D-printed TPU vortex generators, which function like golf ball dimples, disrupting airflow around the body to reduce drag. Additionally, each Aeroblade includes a ventilation hole just upwind of the blade. This design helps to harnesses turbulent airflow caused by the blade, directing airflow onto the skin to enhance cooling. Thusly the blades not only cut drag but also act like small hands held out of a car window, pushing air onto the skin for added cooling.
By balancing aerodynamics and cooling, the Ventus Speedsuit is optimized for fast performances in the hot conditions of the LA 28 Olympics, ensuring athletes maximize speed without overheating.
John Helf - Emerging Sport Apparel Designer of the Year
CARACAL
CARACAL is a game day basketball shoe designed for point guards. Designed with lateral rods embedded across the forefoot of the midsole, CARACAL emphasizes lateral explosive movements. CARACAL mimics modern "super shoe" carbon plate technology but rotates the user's force horizontally.
Other design features include a bone-inspired TPU shell, a dual density high walled midsole, as well as a unique traction pattern, all to enhance lateral stability and liftoff.
elevé
elevé (pronounced: el-uh-VEY), is a ballet training shoe designed to help new ballet dancers learn proper form.
elevé features adjustable elastic straps, 3D Printed TPU toe and heel cages, as well as soft sweat wicking materials, all with the intent of empowering new dancers as they get on point.
By supporting muscles and ligaments through tension bands and soft TPU cages, elevé holds the foot in plantar flexion so that athletes can train and strengthen through and avoid future over use injuries.
hōm: convertible backpack to tent
The hōm backpack-to-tent system introduces a pop-up tent design that enhances the camping experience by allowing setup in less than a minute. This innovative feature is perfect for new campers, making the process quick, easy, and even fun. With a simple release mechanism, the tent effortlessly springs into place, supported by a collapsible aluminum frame that locks into position. This pop-up nature removes the frustration of complex assembly, allowing campers to spend more time enjoying their surroundings. The system’s minimalist design and premium materials ensure a refined experience, offering both ease of use and elegance in a compact, high-performance package. Whether it’s a quick weekend getaway or an extended outdoor adventure, hōm provides a stress-free and luxurious camping solution, ideal for those new to the outdoors who still want to enjoy a sophisticated, hassle-free setup.
Lauren Kochaver
Crag Cloud Puffer
Designed for climbers who embrace cold sending temps, the Crag Cloud Puffer keeps you warm between bouldering attempts. Built-in mittens provide instant hand warmth, while a custom easy-open zipper pull ensures seamless use—even with the mittens on. Oversized interior pockets keep your climbing shoes toasty, a roomy fit allows for effortless on-and-off wear, and a fleece-lined hood adds extra warmth and comfort against harsh conditions. Sustainably crafted with recycled materials, the Crag Cloud Puffer is the ultimate crag companion.
Lisa Ly
The SculptFlex Leotard
SculptFlex is a compression training leotard for enhanced postural support designed for girls aged 13-19 competing in the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships. Many young skaters struggle with maintaining good posture and must undergo rigorous training to perfect form and reduce the risks of injury. By creating zones of compression, the movement-related pressure will signal the corresponding muscles to improve proprioception and evenly distribute force for figure skaters.
The SculptFlex Leotard features an elegant lattice compression pattern at the shoulder and hip for stability, core and back for muscle support, and chest for breast tissue support. The back has a keyhole with a metal slide and hook closure for easy donning and doffing for the athlete. SculptFlex also maximizes comfort and prevents chafing with a moisture-wicking nylon-spandex blend and seamless construction at the brief, keyhole, and sleeve hems.
The Jogak Jacket
The Jogak Jacket is designed to be a centerpiece in a Heritage Collection by two-time Gold Olympian snowboarder Chloe Kim to celebrate her Korean-American identity through fashion and sustainability. It is inspired by the silhouette of the Hanbok, the Korean traditional garment, and follows the practice of Jogakbo, a Korean style of patchwork made from leftover fabric scraps. Pieced into whole, this jacket embodies Chloe Kim's multifaceted identity and breathes new life into old material.
This jacket features an asymmetrical quarter-zip for breathability like the V-shape neckline of Jeogori, the outer top garment in Hanbok. The Jeogori tie continues to honor the Hanbok and adds visual interest. The oversized drapey hood and high-neck collar provides a cocoon of comfort and warmth. The raglan balloon sleeve allows for a dramatic drop-shoulder fit to create another layer of dimension to the billowing silhouette. The elastic drawcord at the hem offers adjustability and cinching for contrast. The jacket is also fully lined for easy donning, doffing, and layering. Lastly, the customized 3D printed zipper pull represents a Korean ornamental knot traditionally worn by women.
Lulu West
Vert Canyoneering Safety Pack
A casual 20L drypack with comfortable hip-belt and adjustable shoulder straps, and a removable inner pocket system. This pack quickly transforms into a single-person pack raft with modular pocket spaces for the inner pocket system to attach to. With a specially designed hidden back pocket, a stow-away collapsible oar helps the hiker navigate rough flash floods in the dangerous canyon environment.
Fleure Training Goggles
The future of training goggles are here! A high-tech training goggle design, built for water sport athletes with low nose-bridges and mono lid facial features. This goggle is equipped with PPG sensors and a removable projector camera to aid in training by displaying heart rate, lap count, & timing for pacing assistance. To increase ease of use, compression mandibles hold in excess goggle straps to ensure snug fit and easy adjustment of fit for each athlete's skull. This design was inspired by the intersection of two different animal components - the eyes of a goat and the arms of an antlion larvae - to create a unique aesthetic impact that is inspired by nature!
BioHaq Unitard
A combination of science and apparel design that pushes the performance of wheelchair basketball athletes.
Designed for high-point class wheelchair basketball paraplegic men, this compressive base layer system works with their body, without the use of any wearable technology, to stimulate paralyzed and damaged muscle groups to improve their performance during competition. Using cutting edge neuroengineering and compression therapeutics research, the compression mapped design activates key mechanoreceptor sites on the torso - leading to the apparel recruiting muscle support for the athlete dependent on movement. As the athlete moves to twist, turn, or bend, this unitard base layer recruits muscle support to improve athlete posture, range of motion, and overall speed of play movement to enhance their on-court performance. With an accessible side zipper for easy donning/doffing, this unitard can be worn under full uniform or simple basketball shorts, as a patterned Jersey design on the chest allows for reduced fabric weight in key sweat collecting areas such as the upper back and chest.
Cameron 24's Postmenopausal Training Shoe
It's been proven that post-menopausal women lose up to 20% of their bone density within 5 years of their last menstrual cycle. This puts women at high risk for developing osteopenia and osteoporosis - leaving them at risk for stress fractures at the metatarsals and pelvis. Healthy exercise such as strength-training and cardio have been shown to increase bone density of athletes by letting impact forces strengthen the bones, thus reducing and delaying the skeletal impacts of menopause for women. But how do we prevent fractures while promoting bone growth?
Introducing the Cameron 24's, a cross-training shoe specifically designed for post-menopausal women. With revolutionary OsteoGel technology, we can control the amount of impact forces displaced across the metatarsals and promote healthy bone growth during controlled movements and reduce impact forces of sudden striking motions. Built in stability features like the motion control Amoeba Accelerant designed midsole and supportive heel lock design ensure every athlete feels confident and comfortable. With no-tie laces, this shoe is accessibly designed for women of any age!
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