EUGENE, Ore. – (Sept. 26, 2013) – The University of Oregon's Lundquist College of Business is collaborating with several Portland-area sports product companies to offer a four-part series of workshops in Portland that will focus on areas of interest to the sports product industry.

The series – geared toward industry and non-industry professionals, along with masters-level students – will open with a workshop Nov. 1-2 on "Sustainability: From Design to Manufacturing," at the UO Portland's White Stag Building. It will be followed by workshops next Feb. 22-23 on “Sports Product Retail Merchandising,” May 10-11 on “Storytelling in the Sports Product Business” and next summer on “Consumer Insights & Market Research.”

The workshop series is the result of efforts by the UO business college to better serve the Oregon-based sports product industry. The college is creating a Sports Product Management program in collaboration with professionals from adidas, Columbia Sportswear, KEEN, Nike, Oakley, Deviation, Handful, RYZ and other sports product companies in Portland.

Darcy Winslow, managing partner at the Academy for Systemic Change, and Sue Parham, former vice president of apparel at both Nike and Columbia Sportswear, are among the professionals who will lead the workshops, using interactive exercises to engage participants.

“The Sports Product industry is one of the biggest contributors to the livelihood of many Oregonians,” said Winslow, who is also a former general manager at Nike. "It's the right time for the universities to begin offering education for this industry, especially given the new challenges and opportunities we face in the 21st century."

Winslow will partner with Sharla Settlemier of Nike and Scott Welsh of Columbia Sportswear to offer the “Sustainability: From Design to Manufacturing” workshop. Cost is $1,100 for professionals and $650 for UO students. Sign-up is available through University of Oregon Academic Extension.

"Using the past year to study the sports product industry's needs, the University of Oregon is excited to be offering new programs aligned with and supported by area businesses," said Ellen Schmidt-Devlin, project lead for the new UO Sports Product Management programs. "With this greater understanding of the industry's needs, we are planning to introduce additional programs in both Eugene and Portland during the next several years. These programs are aligning the university's expertise with students' interests and the unique needs of the global sports product industry based in Portland."

About the University of Oregon

The University of Oregon is among the 108 institutions chosen from 4,633 U.S. universities for top-tier designation of "Very High Research Activity" in the 2010 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The UO also is one of two Pacific Northwest members of the Association of American Universities.

Contact: Joe Mosley, UO Media Relations, 541-346-3606, jmosley@uoregon.edu

Source: Ellen Schmidt-Devlin, UO Sports Product Management, 503-830-4519, ellens@uoregon.edu