Utah State University is now offering a first-of-its-kind outdoor product degree program for the upcoming fall semester, school officials announced last week.
The Logan-based institution, which was founded in 1888 as an agricultural college, will become home of the nation's first undergraduate degree in designing and constructing outdoor apparel and products, USA Today reported. The program was created in response to demand for trained product designers in the growing outdoor products industry.
"In Utah, we have a unique opportunity to offer a career pathway program to students that meets an industry demand for technical designers," Lindsey Shirley, who created the program, said in a statement. "If Utah is the premier place for outdoor recreation, then it should be the premier place to train product development professionals for the outdoor industry."
The new program, which was approved last month by the Utah State Board of Regents, is built on 13 new courses specifically related to the outdoor products industry and will incorporate existing courses in ethics, natural resources, sustainability, drafting and design, chemistry, marketing and textiles.
Shirley has worked with many outdoor product manufacturers to develop the program, including Utah-based Blackpine Sports. In fact, this company is was what inspired Shirley to "fill a void in the industry through education," USA Today reported.
"At that time, one of [Blackpine Sports] executives invited me down for a tour just to have a conversation and he kept saying that it was really hard for him to find a trained workforce. They had to do a lot of on-the-job training," Shirley told USA Today. "So I said, 'Well, that's what I specialize in -- preparing a workforce. We can create a degree program at Utah State because we have a lot of the infrastructure already in place.'"
Blackpine Sports is among the 1,000 Utah-based companies that hope to benefit from a new stream of well-trained designers, and the camping gear manufacturer has committed to fund the first scholarship for students in the new program.
"I believe the outdoors industry is a little different than other markets," Matthew Lawrence, Blackpine Sports' director of operations, said in a statement. "It's because our customers are so brand loyal and passionate about what they do. What we offer people is an experience. No one buys camping and outdoor gear because they have to. They buy it because they want to. This makes them more picky and enthusiastic about what they buy. Having a degree program like this will finally connect the passion people have for outdoor experiences with the skill set necessary to be successful designers."
Shirley believes the new program will not only prepare a workforce, but continue "to make our local, state and global community strong."
