Being part of a winning team: a problem-based approach to teach sustainability adoption in collegiate athletic uniforms

Sustainability adoption in the collegiate athletic uniform market, while gaining popularity, remains a significant concern. The purpose of this project was to engage students in a problem-based learning assignment focused on sourcing collegiate athletic uniforms and training gear from 100% sustainable or regional (within 100 miles) sources. Student teams selected a sport and met with coaches, equipment managers, and players to design and develop uniforms and training apparel to be sourced from Oeko-Tex certified manufacturers or regional producers. Post-production interviews were conducted with teams to evaluate their understanding of sustainability and its impact on sourcing decisions. Overall, student teams reported the difficulty with sustainably sourcing materials, which provides the industry an opportunity to ease this process. In doing so, future product developers will choose to source sustainably.