What does it take to redesign one of the most traditional pieces of athletic equipment?
At the University of Oregon's Portland campus, students in the Lundquist College of Business's Sports Product Management (SPM) master's program tackled the real-world challenge of rethinking the ballet pointe shoe, a product known for breaking down within weeks, contributing to athlete pain, injury risk, material waste, and high global costs.
The effort was undertaken as a defining element of the SPM student academic experience. Students are placed into multifunctional teams, with each member bringing their own strengths, experience, and background to the table. This intentional diversity fuels stronger collaboration, sharper problem-solving, and more meaningful innovation. Together, they navigate user research, materials innovation, sourcing strategy, factory communication, and brand positioning, mirroring the cross-functional dynamics of the global sports product industry.
The members of one such group, Team Arneau, decided to take on ballet pointe shoes. Students Pilar Agudelo (the team's designer), Nico Borromeo (developer), Kara Cranston (team lead and materials), Cade Marshall-Bowman (factory contact and prototyping), and Mike Smoluk (costing and sourcing) dove deep into dancer pain points, durability issues, and performance demands, bringing modern product thinking to a centuries-old design.
Guided by industry veterans Greg Hoffman (former Nike Chief Marketing Officer) and Greg Leedy (former Nike Innovation Kitchen Footwear Designer), these students collaborated across disciplines, tested assumptions, and problem-solved to craft a more durable and more comfortable ballet pointe shoe.
To learn more about the process, watch the video about the project on YouTube.
—Lundquist College of Business Communications