USU outdoor product program marks 10 years of rapid growth

When Utah State University launched its Outdoor Product Design and Development, or OPDD, program in the fall of 2015, administrators expected a modest class of students. Instead, 70 students enrolled that first semester — more than triple what the university expected — and a decade later, the program is celebrating that rise with growing industry influence, consistent job placement and alumni working at top brands. 

“We built something really special here on campus,” said Chase Anderson, OPDD industry relations manager. 

Anderson joined OPDD in January 2017 after volunteering with outdoor start-ups while he was a student. He remembers helping the apparel brand Cotopaxi promote itself on campus and then realizing the outdoor sector was a viable career path. His job has been helping students forge lasting relationships with companies and ensuring they leave with marketable skills. 

Over the past decade, the program has thrived through an expanded curriculum and deeper industry connections. OPDD started as a single design track but soon added two more emphases: product development and product line management. Students can now focus on anything from visualization and sketching to the nitty-gritty of manufacturing and prototyping — or even the cross-functional work of managing product teams. Faculty built new courses aimed specifically at product designers, including sketching classes taught from a designer’s perspective rather than a general art class. 

Anderson said those curriculum decisions were guided by an advisory board of industry partners — including Patagonia, Black Diamond and Cotopaxi — which still provides feedback, funds lab space and evaluates senior projects each spring.  

“When our students apply, companies are more likely to hire our graduates because they know and trust our program,” Anderson said. 

The program now typically enrolls between 80-200 students at any given time. About 30-40 students graduate from OPPD each year, and Anderson said roughly 80% of those find relevant jobs in design, development or product management soon after graduation. 

© CWild Photography

Outside USU Outdoor Programs Rental Shop, Nov 13, 2024.

Students and faculty have pushed OPDD into a visible place on campus in recent years. Two years ago, the program consolidated scattered classrooms and offices into a single hub in the Janet Quinney Lawson Building, creating studios and labs where students work side by side on multi-week projects.  

“We can just bounce ideas off of each other,” said senior Jack Drake, who moved from Oregon specifically to enroll in the program. “The space has developed … over time and exponentially grown into what it is today.” 

The collaborative environment is paired with hands-on, industry-facing projects. Drake described a design-thinking course where his group worked with NASA to explore patented heat transfer ideas and make them usable in consumer products. He also spent a summer interning at Nike and received a full-time return offer for after graduation — a sign, he said, that OPDD’s broad training helped him compete in an ultra-selective hiring pool. 

“We really learn how to communicate our ideas and advocate for ourselves,” Drake said. “We’re always taught that our place in this is to improve the industry.” 

He credited faculty and staff — especially Anderson and USU soft goods design professor Mark Larese-Casanova — for opening doors to professional mentorships and material suppliers that let students prototype with unusual textiles. 

The program has attracted high-profile visitors and speakers along the way. Anderson points to industry icons who have spent extended time on campus, such as Hap Klopp, founder of The North Face, and founder Tim Leatherman of Leatherman Tool Group. These events have given students rare access to the people behind influential gear.  

Student work has also received international attention. Anderson highlighted his former student, Jack Dorrance, who became a top 10 finalist in the global Woolmark Performance Challenge. Dorrance was tasked with exploring the future of wool textiles and how they can be used for performance, traveling to Munich, Germany, to give his final presentation. 

Looking ahead, OPDD’s leaders want to deepen the program’s global engagement and expand facilities. The department already has a partnership that allows students to study a year at IUT Annecy in France and return with international credentials.  

Anderson said the program is creating more overseas internships, as students have interned in places such as Vietnam and Indonesia. The program is also seeking company support to build additional lab space and purchase equipment. 

For students unsure about committing to such a specialized major, Anderson offered some advice: Take one class. He said introductory courses such as sketching or OPDD 1100: Introduction to Product Creation are open to students from any major and often provide skills that apply across disciplines.  

“If you want to solve problems, if you want to make things, this is a great program,” Anderson said. 

According to Drake, 10 years after its founding, OPDD is no longer a novel experiment on campus. It is a focused professional pipeline and a launchpad into some of the world’s most competitive product teams. The program’s anniversary will be a moment for celebration, Anderson said, but also for recommitting to growth through creating deeper industry ties and more room for students to build the next generation of outdoor gear. 

“This program is really unique, and we’re looking forward to the next 10 years,” he said.