Jonathan Hutnyan competed on Youngstown State University’s Division I cross country and track and field teams while earning his bachelor’s degree in marketing management. He was able to bring six years of sales and marketing experience at a running specialty chain with him when he joined the UO Sports Product Management program in fall 2016.
While in the program, he worked on a product creation team that developed a women’s running shoe and spent last summer as a footwear development intern for Under Armour.
Why did you choose the University of Oregon Sports Product Management Program?
I chose the University of Oregon Sports Product Management program for its uniqueness and focus on an industry that I have been passionate about since I was a young athlete. It was a program that presented itself at the right time in my academic and professional career. The one-of-a-kind education offered was so attractive, and I knew it would further my education in many different ways. I had to be a part of it.
What was your favorite part of the program?
My favorite part of the program was the dynamic classroom atmosphere. The classes are a mixture of lectures, group work, guest speakers, and cohort debate that provides an experience that you do not see in in other academic settings. This type of learning allows for the free flow of ideas between professors, students, and industry experts. It is this time in debate over the future of this industry that I believe the graduates of the program garner some of their most useful insights.
What are you doing now?
Since graduating from the program in March of 2018, I moved to Baltimore, Maryland to start a full-time position at Under Armour as a product analyst on the youth footwear team. My main responsibility is overseeing all wear and fit testing for the whole line of youth footwear. I get to work closely with our development team, engineers, and materials testers to ensure our samples are passing at each stage and ready for production. This also allows me the opportunity to work with many young athletes in the Baltimore area, which is a great chance to garner feedback and insights from the future consumers of our industry.
Do you have any advice for candidates?
My best advice to candidates of the SPM program is to find your entrepreneurial voice and make it loud and clear. We all have it somewhere within us. To be able to find how it works for you and communicate it clearly can make you an even more attractive candidate to the admissions board.