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A Q&A with Chamille Thayer, Industrial Designer and Educator: Navigating Empathetic Engineering and Industrial Realities

Spotlight articles shine a light on designers, engineers, researchers, and creative thinkers we admire and the ideas shaping design today.

Chamille Thayer, industrial design educator at Pratt Institute and design engineer with over a decade of experience in corporate R&D

This month, we’re turning to industrial design education and practice with a provocative question: How do we balance human empathy, technical rigor, and the massive economic forces of mass production?

We spoke with Chamille Thayer, industrial design educator at Pratt Institute and seasoned design engineer with over a decade in corporate R&D at Estée Lauder. Chamille brings the seasoned perspective of an active practitioner and relentless advocate for manufacturability to the classroom.

Our conversation ranged from the delicate balance between physical needs and emotional wants to the hidden corporate politics behind industrial manufacturing. We talked about how digital tools and AI affect tactile intuition, why true empathy requires personal vulnerability, and what it really takes to navigate “industrial realities” without losing a product’s soul.

Q:

You’ve engineered products that meet physical needs, like mobility aids, as well as products for emotional wants, like beauty products. Does empathy for a “need” require a different instinct than empathy for a “want”?

A:

It’s a question of the magnitude of the imperative. Designing to satisfy an unmet, foundational need, like a walker that allows someone to ambulate without assistance, is where we start. Without that product, the person cannot walk without assistance. The need is met once the product exists.

When a landscape of products already satisfies that core need, design shifts toward “wants”: styling, single-handed folding, or extra storage. We’re obliged to encompass a broader set of user wants to distinguish a product in the marketplace.

The designer sits at the hub of the wheel, and the spokes of obligation reach out to manufacturing, marketing, regulatory agencies, the user, and the environment. All of those need to be satisfied and synthesized in the center by the designer. While there’s an opportunity for designers to add a piece of themselves, I tell my students that should be the last five percent of the solution. Design is like Thanksgiving dinner: you make sure every single guest is completely full and satisfied before you make a plate for yourself.

Q:

What is a memorable design “failure” that taught you a hard lesson about human behavior and empathy?

A:

Technical line drawings from U.S. Patent 6,295,994 B1 issued October 2, 2001, displaying cross-sectional mechanical diagrams (Figures 21, 22, 23, 27, 28, and 29) of a flexible applicator design. — Technical patent drawing (US 6,295,994 B1) illustrating structural mechanics, flexible cross-sections, and ergonomic detailing for an innovative applicator design.

In research and development at Estée Lauder, over 90% of what we invented never made it to market. But one specific lipstick mechanism project stands out. We designed a propel-repel mechanism that reduced manufacturing costs from $0.27 to $0.17 per unit. When a company gives away 50 million units a year as gift-with-purchase, saving a dime per unit is a massive $5 million cost saving.

I worked for five years on that project, qualifying tooling, solving engineering hurdles, traveling back and forth to France, and testing filling lines. When we finally had a viable product, purchasing went back to our primary supplier, who had just invested $4 million automating their existing assembly line, and demanded an 8 cent price drop on their existing case, threatening to switch to our new design. The supplier folded and dropped their price.

Our product never launched. The company got the cost savings using our innovation as a bargaining chip, but our technology was shelved. The lesson? The magnitude of economic realities at an industrial scale is an unstoppable force. It’s not the polite suggestion of economics, it’s the law of economics. Products must be economically sustainable within the actual systems that build them.

Q:

Engineers often get a bad rap for focusing on specs over empathy. As a designer with strong mechanical savvy, how do you bridge that gap when working alongside them?

A:

An industrial designer must be a competent engineer conceptually. Engineers are constantly looking for the less expensive, more efficient solution. If you want a rectangular volume, an engineer might prefer 45 degrees of draft so it pops out of the mold instantly and stacks easily. But now you have a trapezoid, not a rectangle.

To bridge that gap, you need baseline credibility. Go to the manufacturer with a great technical drawing. A clean, accurate drawing gives you instantaneous credibility: it proves you know what you’re talking about and that your request is reasonable.

From there, pick your fights. You can’t fight across the entire landscape of a product. Understand your hierarchy of what actually matters. I once designed a mascara brush that used a threaded stainless steel spring to bypass a competitor’s patent. I arbitrarily set a microscopic tolerance without realizing how hard it was for manufacturing engineers to hold. Instead of telling me, they put workers on the line manually inspecting and turning every piece, which blew up our costs. You have to know what is worth fighting for and where you can yield so engineers trust you when it counts.

Q:

You’re known for being tough and exacting about manufacturability. Does a concept usually lose some of its freshness by the time it survives the engineering and manufacturing process?

A:

Absolutely. There is a dream of the product, and you have to understand what is at the heart of that dream. Students often struggle because they have three good ideas and are convinced their product should do all three, when really, those should be three separate products.

When you’re designing something and planning multiple innovations, you have to be clear: if you can only keep three, what are they? If you can only keep two? If you can only keep one, what is the single thing this product has to do? Constraints are real. Everyone has a dream, but if you can’t propose a realistic path to execution, you don’t actually have a design. That’s the difference between fiction and design.

Q:

In prosthetics and body-adjacent devices, what’s a mechanical decision that seems purely technical on paper but actually changes how someone feels about their own body?

A:

In the realm of seen objects, nothing is a purely mechanical choice. Psychology and identity are embedded in everything, especially when amending a human body.

Some people want a prosthetic arm that is completely indistinguishable from their natural arm; others want an aesthetic that has no visual relationship to a human limb at all. I personally believe there is far too much styling masquerading as design intended to disguise or hide the truth of what an object is.

Look at 1930s car engines: the carburetors were polished, the wire arrangements were minimalist and artful, and every functional element was beautifully composed. Today, engines are hidden under a molded piece of plastic that mimics a valve cover to disguise an engineering mess of wires and hoses underneath. Conversely, look at custom gaming PCs: people build liquid-cooled systems with transparent cases and backlighting, celebrating function as art. We should be celebrating the possibilities of beauty in functional mechanics rather than hiding them under shrouds.

Q:

How do you teach students to step outside their own body and habits when designing for someone whose needs or wants are completely different from their own?

A:

You can’t teach it in a vacuum. You have to get the student in direct contact with a real user, and they have to be willing to be wrong. Being wrong often is an absolute prerequisite for good design.

I had a student who wanted to design a prosthetic hand for a musician. He tracked down a professional drummer in California who had lost his hand in a fireworks accident. They collaborated all semester, measuring the residual limb remotely and refining the mechanism. At the end of the term, the drummer flew out to Pratt with his drum kit, tried on the custom prosthetic, and was able to execute drumming techniques he couldn’t perform with his commercial device.

Good designers find real users, talk to them directly, and stay open to having their assumptions shattered.

Q:

When a project is completely foreign to your own experience, how do you summon empathy for that user?

A:

3D CAD visualization showing a fully assembled white and grey ergonomic hand-held spectrophotometer alongside an exploded assembly view revealing internal PCBs, battery, optics module, display bezel, and housing architecture. — Ergonomic design and internal engineering layout for Datacolor’s hand-held spectrophotometer, featuring a self-adjusting optical read head and balanced housing for precise industrial color measurement.

Firsthand, un-curated observation is essential. The designer has to walk out of the office and observe the world directly.

If you want to understand the problems of subway stairs, go sit in the subway for an afternoon every day for a week. Watch someone try to navigate the stairs with a baby carriage, a laundry cart, and a musical instrument. Watch a street vendor set up their table and realize it takes them two hours to set up, two hours to tear down, and an hour of travel each way: that’s six hours of logistics before an eight-hour workday.

Once you observe that 14-hour day, you realize that streamlining their setup could radically improve their life. Ethnographic research, direct observation, and speculative narrative (constructing narrative stories about why someone needs an object) are the foundational skills of empathy.

Q:

If a designer is looking to become genuinely more empathetic in their practice, what are some personal habits or inner work they need to do?

A:

Real empathy starts by understanding your own feelings: your own joy, your own failures, and your own ego. You can’t ignore empathy in your personal life and then simply turn it on as a designer when you walk into the studio. That isn’t empathy; at best, it’s sympathy, which is just feeling bad for someone rather than sharing what they feel.

Design is an intensely mental exercise deeply attached to our own ego and fear of failure. If you are bound by your reputation or fear of looking foolish, you cannot design freely or connect authentically with others. The centeredness and self-awareness you cultivate as a person directly dictate your freedom and capacity as a designer.

Q:

You introduced 3D CAD and digital fabrication to Pratt in the late ’90s. Now that digital workflows move even faster, do young designers still understand materials and physics as intuitively as they used to?

A:

A collection of 3D computer-rendered metallic and silver product designs, including cosmetic compacts, squeeze tubes, aerosol spray cans, and ergonomic personal care packaging resting on a light neutral surface. — Product design exploration and 3D concept renders showcasing sleek metallic packaging and ergonomic forms developed by industrial designer Chamille Thayer.

In the early days, digital tools freed us from an unhealthy emotional attachment to physical artifacts. If you spent six hours hand-sanding a mahogany model and a professor told you to make it 10% larger, you were crushed because you couldn’t just add wood back. Digital output allowed us to iterate without that emotional paralysis.

Today, 3D printing is so ubiquitous that we see the opposite problem: zero physical investment and a loss of unconscious, intuitive decision-making. When you bend a wire with pliers, your eye measures the curve, your hands feel the tension, and you make dozens of sophisticated aesthetic choices without calculating an exact 26.7° angle.

In CAD, a user spends 30% to 50% of their cognitive energy managing the logistics of the software rather than exploring the idea. When you hold a pencil, you’re 98% in the idea. Digital tools offer a faster, less time-consuming path, but often, it becomes a faster path to poorer ideas.

Q:

With AI tools becoming more prevalent in the studio, how will this affect the role of empathy in design and our ability to understand users?

A:

AI is a useful tool, but it has zero empathy: it has statistical probability.

When we encourage AI to lead, we do poorly. Asking AI what should exist or what people care about is a terrible plan. However, if you have designed six handle concepts and ask AI to analyze similar existing forms in the sports product market, that is a great use case.

Design is the experience of self in the world, and it’s the source of my greatest joy. Why delegate that to a bot? I need to catch my own mouse; I don’t want the cat’s mouse. Use technology as an accessory, but do the heavy lifting yourself. Go hunting for your own insights.

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A Q&A with Roger Schmitz, Founder of Moxy Monitor

Rethinking athlete performance through muscle oxygen data

Spotlight articles shine a light on designers and engineers we admire, asking leaders in the field about their work and their creative journey. Roger Schmitz, founder and CEO of Moxy Monitor, has spent more than a decade doing exactly that. A mechanical engineer by training, Schmitz developed a wearable sensor that measures muscle oxygen saturation using near-infrared spectroscopy. The technology gives athletes, coaches, and performance scientists direct insight into how muscles are working under load.

Photo of Roger Schmitz — Roger Schmitz, Founder and CEO of Moxy Monitor

Originally inspired by medical device research, Moxy has become a powerful tool for endurance athletes, professional teams, and researchers studying human performance.

More recently, Schmitz partnered with Interwoven Design Group to solve a particularly difficult challenge: how to integrate a precision sensor into athletic apparel in a way that is reliable, comfortable, and almost invisible to the athlete wearing it.

We spoke with Roger about the origins of Moxy, what muscle oxygen reveals that other metrics miss, and what happens when engineers and designers collaborate to solve hard problems.

Q:

Could you start by telling us about yourself and the story behind Moxy?

A:

My name is Roger Schmitz. I’m the CEO and founder of Moxy Monitor, and I developed the technology that takes muscle oxygen measurements and allows us to do it accurately.

My background is in engineering—I’m a mechanical engineer by training. I worked in the disc drive industry for a while and later in medical devices. Around that time I was working with near-infrared spectroscopy, which is the core technology behind Moxy.

Those devices were large benchtop systems used for trauma patients. They had cables running to the patient and cost about $15,000. After that company failed and I was laid off, I started thinking about how to make the technology much smaller, more accurate, and dramatically less expensive.

The idea was to create a wearable, battery-powered device that cost under $1,000. I originally thought it would become a medical device, but a cardiologist I met with said something that changed everything. He said, “You should make it for athletes. The regulatory burden will be dramatically smaller.”

That’s what we did. And interestingly, a lot of researchers still buy the device today and use it to study heart failure—just not in a clinical setting.

Q:

We often hear about metrics like heart rate, GPS tracking, or power output. What does muscle oxygen reveal that those metrics don’t?

A:

Athlete wearing Moxy Monitor sensor during field performance testing — Moxy Monitor sensor placed on the thigh to measure muscle oxygen during activity.

Those metrics can be divided into two categories: external load and internal load.

External load is how much work the body is doing—things like GPS speed or power meters. Internal load is how hard the body has to work to produce that output.

Heart rate is one measure of internal load, but it has limitations. It responds slowly to changes in effort and it’s influenced by a lot of other factors.

Muscle oxygen is different because it reacts immediately. When you change the load, we see a change in muscle oxygen right away. We’re measuring what’s happening in the muscle in real time. That makes it incredibly useful for adjusting training intensity.

It becomes another tool athletes and coaches can use to understand what’s really happening inside the body based on those deeper insights.

Q:

So athletes and coaches can see that data in real time?

A:

Yes. The data can show up directly on a GPS watch for endurance athletes—we integrate well with Garmin. For team sports we connect with systems like WIMU GPS.

That means trainers or performance staff can monitor muscle oxygen while athletes are actually playing on the pitch. They can watch the data live on the sideline and even monitor the entire team.

It gives them a lot more information than they’ve traditionally had.

Q:

How do coaches actually use that information in training?

A:

Exploded view diagram of Moxy Monitor sensor showing internal components including circuit board, battery, antenna, and optical sensors — Exploded view of the Moxy Monitor sensor showing its internal components.

One example comes from a professional soccer team in Germany. During practice they alternate between small-sided games—maybe four-on-four—and full-team play. They assumed the full-team drills were more demanding.

But when they looked at the muscle oxygen data they saw that the short-sided play was actually creating more physiological load because of the constant quick bursts of action. It wasn’t showing up in heart rate, but it showed up clearly in the muscle oxygen data.

So they adjusted their training and backed off those drills slightly to avoid overloading the athletes.

Q:

Has Moxy ever contradicted what a coach believed about a player?

A:

Yes, we see that fairly often.

One example involved a professional triathlete who had two bikes—a road bike and a time-trial bike. She kept telling her coach she couldn’t produce the same power on one of them.

The coach initially thought she just needed to get used to the bike. But when they compared the Moxy data between the two bikes, the readings were dramatically different.

At that point the coach said, “This isn’t just in your head—this is a physiologic difference.”

They made some adjustments to the bike fit and her performance improved significantly.

Having objective data can validate what the athlete is feeling.

Q:

Performance staff in elite sports are very data-savvy—but also skeptical of new technology. How did you earn their trust?

A:

That’s a great observation. People approach them with gadgets all the time.

Our approach has been to work closely with both the research community and the high-performance sport community.

Moxy has now been used in hundreds of scientific studies, and those results get published in peer-reviewed journals. Early on people would say the device was too inexpensive to be credible—they assumed it must be a toy.

But as more researchers began publishing results, perceptions changed.

We also host a Moxy Summit, where our power users present how they’re using the technology with athletes. It’s about half researchers and half high-performance sports practitioners.

The key is consistency. Don’t overpromise. Stick to what the science supports.

Over time people start to realize the technology is legitimate.

Q:

With global events like the World Cup, where every performance detail matters, how does muscle oxygen data help teams prepare?

A:

Teams often conduct physiological testing in the lab—treadmill tests, breath analysis, lactate measurements.

The challenge is that you can’t do those tests during an actual match.

But you can measure muscle oxygen on the field. So teams can translate what they learned in the lab to real game situations.

They might know that a certain athlete can sustain a given workload for ninety minutes, while another athlete might only sustain it for sixty or seventy.

At that level, everyone is already operating near their limits. You’re not making huge changes—just small adjustments.

But those small tweaks can be the difference between winning and losing.

Q:

Moxy started in endurance sports. Where else are you seeing it used?

A:

Triathlon probably has the most users because the training is so intense and athletes need careful control of their effort.

Cycling is another big area because we integrate with many data systems already used by cyclists.

We’re also starting to see more use in running and swimming. Swimming is particularly interesting because there’s very little physiological data available when athletes are underwater.

Team sports are expanding too—soccer, hockey, and others—especially as we integrate with GPS systems used by teams.

And there are applications in strength training as well, where coaches want to understand how specific muscles are being loaded.

Q:

Wearables take a beating in contact sports. What was the biggest challenge in making Moxy work on the field cycle?

Athlete placing a Moxy Monitor sensor into a custom wearable ring on the thigh — Moxy Monitor wearable system designed by Interwoven Design Group.

A:

Attachment.
We could get the sensor to stay on, but it required tape, wraps, and a lot of effort from trainers. That’s not practical for daily use.

The breakthrough needed to be something that athletes could put on themselves so the sensor
would essentially disappear into the process of getting dressed. The thigh is a very difficult place to locate a sensor. There’s sweat, extreme movement, cutting, sprinting—it’s a tough environment.

We also discovered that muscle placement varies between athletes, so we needed a solution that allowed customized positioning.

Q:

That challenge is what led you to collaborate with Interwoven. What motivated that partnership?

A:

First of all, this is a really hard problem. It seems simple, but we’ve worked on it for ten years.

What motivated the contact with Interwoven was the need for a solution for soccer—something that worked at a team scale. Trainers needed to set the optimal location, but after that the athlete had to be able to place the sensor themselves.

It also needed to be rugged, durable, and easy to use.

To be honest, I was skeptical it was even possible. We had tried so many things already.

But it was a problem we needed to solve.

Q:

What has the feedback been on the design Interwoven developed?

Design iterations of Moxy Monitor sensor light shield and mounting ring components — Design iterations of the Moxy Monitor light shield and ring system developed by Interwoven Design Group.

A:

When people see it, they pause for a moment. You can see the gears turning.

They look at it and say, “That is really good.”

A good design always looks easy in the end. It looks obvious—like of course that’s how it should work.

But it wasn’t obvious before. That’s the hallmark of great design. It looks simple, but getting there is not simple at all.

Q:

Engineers and designers don’t always speak the same language. What did you learn from working with Interwoven?

A:

One thing that stood out was that Interwoven had a system for arriving at creative solutions.

It wasn’t luck. There was a structured method for working through the problem.

I remember coming to the studio for a design session that lasted several hours. At one point I thought we might not get there—but the team kept working through the process.

Eventually the solution emerged.

As an engineer, I tend to focus heavily on functional requirements: the sensor has to stay in place, the data has to be accurate.

But there are other equally important needs—ease of use, adaptability, and even aesthetics.

These athletes earn millions of dollars. They wear expensive gear and jewelry. The product has to look good as well as function well.

Interwoven kept the entire picture in mind. If a product doesn’t meet all of those needs, it isn’t viable.

That was a really valuable part of the collaboration.

Final Thoughts

From laboratory technology to elite sports performance, Moxy Monitor represents a new way of understanding the body under load. By measuring muscle oxygen directly, athletes and coaches gain a window into physiology that traditional metrics often miss.

For Roger Schmitz, the journey has been one of constant iteration—engineering breakthroughs, scientific validation, and collaboration across disciplines.

And as wearable technology continues to evolve, the partnership between engineers, researchers, and designers will remain essential to turning complex ideas into tools athletes can use every day.

—

Please reach out!

Soft Goods in Athletics: Designing for Performance

Athletics place unique demands on the body. From training and competition to recovery and everyday wear, athletes rely on products that support movement, regulate the body, and perform under constant stress. Unlike casual apparel, athletic soft goods must respond dynamically to speed, impact, repetition, and fatigue, often across long durations and varied environments. Soft goods are foundational to this ecosystem. Apparel, supports, accessories, and hybrid soft–hard systems sit directly against the body, shaping how athletes move, feel, and perform. When designed well, they enhance mobility, manage heat and moisture, reduce distraction, and support confidence. When designed poorly, they restrict movement, cause irritation, or interfere with performance.

At Interwoven Design, we specialize in soft goods that move with the body. Our work in athletics combines textile innovation, ergonomics, and human-centered design to create performance-driven products that feel intuitive in motion. By designing for real bodies in real athletic contexts, we help brands create products that support both peak performance and long-term use.

In this Insight article, we explore what makes athletic soft goods design distinct, the challenges and opportunities within this space, and how thoughtful design can elevate performance, comfort, and user experience. Through examples from across the athletic landscape, we highlight how soft goods function as essential infrastructure for modern sport.

When Apparel Becomes Equipment

Athletic soft goods operate in a fundamentally different context than lifestyle apparel or fashion-driven performance wear. These products are not designed for occasional movement or visual expression alone; they are worn through repetition, strain, sweat, and fatigue. They must perform reliably under physical stress, often for hours at a time, and across a wide range of environments and body types. Designing for athletics means designing for use, not appearance first.

Unlike everyday apparel, athletic soft goods are in constant dialogue with the body. They stretch, compress, resist, and recover in response to motion. A poorly placed seam can cause chafing. Excess material can disrupt movement or trap heat. Insufficient structure can compromise stability and lead to injury.In this context, comfort is not a luxury, it is a performance requirement.

Athletic products must also account for intensity and repetition. Runners log thousands of steps per session. Training garments endure repeated washing, abrasion, and exposure to sweat and friction. Soft goods must maintain their integrity and fit over time, not just during initial wear. This demands careful material selection, durable construction methods, and patterning that supports long-term use without breakdown.

There is also a psychological dimension to athletic soft goods. When equipment fits well and moves naturally with the body, it fades into the background, allowing athletes to focus fully on performance. When it doesn’t, it becomes a distraction. Confidence, trust, and mental clarity are directly influenced by how gear feels in motion. The best athletic soft goods support not only physical performance, but also the athlete’s sense of readiness and control. They must earn their place through performance: working with the body, adapting to motion, and standing up to the realities of athletic use.

Designing for the Body in Constant Motion

In athletics, soft goods are not passive layers. They are active interfaces between the body, the environment, and performance demands. From training apparel and compression systems to protective gear and integrated wearables, these products must move dynamically with the athlete while maintaining structure, control, and comfort under stress. Designing for this context requires a deep understanding of the body in motion and the realities of how athletic products are actually used.

Designing for Dynamic Movement

Athletic soft goods must accommodate complex, repetitive movement patterns: sprinting, cutting, rotating, reaching, absorbing impact, and recovering between efforts. Unlike everyday apparel, these products are subjected to continuous mechanical stress, sweat, heat buildup, and friction. Seams, stretch zones, and reinforcement areas must be placed with intention, aligning with muscle groups, joints, and patterns of load. Poorly placed construction details can restrict movement, cause chafing, or create pressure points that distract from performance.

Effective design begins with understanding how the body behaves under exertion. This includes how muscles expand and contract, how posture shifts during fatigue, and how movement changes across different intensities. Soft goods that perform well in athletics are designed not just for a static fit, but for how they stretch, compress, and recover throughout an entire training session or match. They are also tailored to the specific movements that are unique to a given sport or activity.

Balancing Support and Freedom

One of the central challenges in athletic soft goods design is balancing support with mobility. Athletes often need targeted compression, stabilization, or protection without sacrificing range of motion or speed. This balance is achieved through thoughtful material zoning and construction strategies rather than relying on bulk or rigidity.

Strategic use of elastic and non-elastic materials can provide structure where it is needed and flexibility where it is essential. Paneling, knit variation, and layered systems allow designers to fine-tune how a product behaves across different areas of the body. When executed well, this approach creates products that feel secure without feeling restrictive, enabling athletes to move confidently and naturally.

Comfort as a Performance Factor

In athletic contexts, comfort is inseparable from performance. Heat retention, moisture management, and skin interaction all influence endurance, focus, and recovery. Fabrics must manage sweat efficiently, dry quickly, and maintain a consistent feel against the skin even during prolonged use. Construction details such as bindings, hems, and closures must remain stable under movement without digging in or shifting.

Extended wear is common in athletics, whether during long training sessions, tournaments, or back-to-back competitions. Soft goods that cause irritation or distraction can negatively affect performance long before physical fatigue sets in. Designing for comfort means anticipating these long-duration use cases and prioritizing material behavior and construction quality at every point of contact with the body.

Iteration Through Real-World Testing

Designing for athletic performance demands rigorous, real-world testing. Prototypes must be worn, trained in, and stressed in the environments they are intended for. Observing how products shift, stretch, retain shape, or fail under real movement reveals critical insights that inform refinement. his iterative process is central to how we approach athletic soft goods at Interwoven Design. By evaluating products in motion and under load, we identify opportunities to improve durability, comfort, and performance, ensuring that the final design supports the athlete rather than working against them.

Designing for the body in motion means respecting the physical realities of athletic performance. While the challenges are significant, they also represent meaningful opportunities for innovation. Well-designed athletic soft goods can improve performance, reduce injury risk, enhance comfort, and build stronger emotional connections between athletes and their gear. Products that perform reliably over time earn trust, becoming essential parts of an athlete’s training and competition routine.

Case Studies: Design for Athletics in Action

Performance apparel and wearable systems are shaped by how athletes move, train, and compete across varying conditions and levels of intensity. The following case studies highlight Interwoven Design’s approach to athletic soft goods, showcasing how thoughtful material selection, ergonomic construction, and brand-driven design come together to support performance, comfort, and identity on and off the field.

Case Study 1: GLDN PNT Padelwear

Premium activewear brand GLDN PNT partnered with Interwoven Design to create their first men’s and women’s padelwear collections, launching a brand built specifically around the movement patterns, performance needs, and aesthetic expectations of the sport. As the sport of padel continues to grow globally, athletes are demanding apparel that reflects the intensity, precision, and social culture of the game.

Unlike crossover tennis or general training apparel, padel requires clothing that supports rapid lateral movement, extended rallies, sun exposure, and frequent ball handling. GLDN PNT’s goal was to introduce a collection that felt intentional, elevated, and authentic to padel, while establishing a strong visual identity that could scale with the brand.

GLDN PNT - Photo by Ton Gomes — GLDN PNT – Photo by Ton Gomes

The Design Challenge

Padel occupies a distinct space between tennis and squash, with its own cadence, court dynamics, and player culture. However, the apparel market had yet to fully reflect those differences. The challenge was twofold: to design sport-specific garments that performed under the physical demands of padel, and to simultaneously define a cohesive brand language that would differentiate GLDN PNT in a growing, style-conscious market.

From a performance standpoint, garments needed to support explosive movement, sustained play, and outdoor conditions without compromising comfort or fit. From a brand perspective, the collection had to feel modern and premium, appealing to both competitive players and lifestyle-driven athletes who engage with padel as a social sport.

Our Approach

Interwoven Design led a comprehensive, end-to-end design process that integrated brand strategy, soft goods expertise, and technical apparel development. The project began with identifying market gaps and analyzing both competitive sportswear and emerging padel culture. Through trend research, event observation, and consumer insight, Interwoven Design established a clear design direction for the GLDN PNT brand. Mood boards and color stories were developed to define the collection’s tone, ensuring visual cohesion across men’s and women’s lines. Silhouette development focused on balancing clean, contemporary styling with functional performance, resulting in a capsule collection that included athletic tanks, t-shirts, shorts, skirts, and complementary accessories.

As always, material selection played a central role in the design. Drawing from an extensive textile library and industry partnerships, Interwoven Design sourced high-performance fabrics selected for stretch, breathability, durability, and sun protection. Each fabric choice was evaluated not only for performance, but for how it contributed to the overall brand feel and on-court presence.

Branding and Visual Integration

Beyond garment design, Interwoven developed GLDN PNT’s branding system across apparel and accessories. This included custom graphics, reflective heat-seal logos, embroidered elements for visors and hats, and garment labels. Each branding element was strategically placed to enhance visibility and identity without interfering with performance or comfort. The result is a cohesive visual language that reinforces GLDN PNT’s positioning as a premium padel brand while remaining functional on the court.

Impact

Launched in June 2024, the GLDN PNT padelwear collection established a strong foundation for the brand, delivering sport-specific performance apparel with a distinct identity. By designing soft goods that respond directly to the physical demands and cultural nuances of padel, Interwoven helped GLDN PNT enter the market with clarity, confidence, and credibility.

Case Study 2: Miami Dolphins Cheerleader Uniforms

Miami Dolphins cheerleaders performing on the field wearing team performance uniforms — Miami Dolphins – Photo by Miami Dolphins Cheer

Elite cheerleading sits at the intersection of athletic performance, visual precision, and public-facing brand representation. The Miami Dolphins Cheerleaders partnered with Interwoven Design Group to modernize their uniforms and practice apparel, with the goal of creating performance-driven soft goods that support high-energy routines while empowering individual expression within a cohesive team identity.

Interwoven Design was commissioned to redesign the on-field uniforms, practice apparel, and a complementary cheer sneaker, elevating the cheerleaders’ wardrobe to reflect their dual roles as professional athletes and ambassadors for the Miami Dolphins organization. The project emphasized comfort, functionality, and confidence, ensuring that each garment

performed under physical intensity while presenting a polished, contemporary aesthetic on and off the field.

The Design Challenge

Cheerleading places exceptional demands on apparel. Garments must support explosive movement, jumps, lifts, and sustained choreography under stadium lights, heat, and long performance durations. At the same time, cheer uniforms are highly visible, serving as a key expression of team identity and brand values.

The challenge was to design a system of soft goods that could withstand athletic rigor without restricting movement, manage heat and perspiration, and maintain visual consistency across the team. Equally important was creating a wardrobe that allowed cheerleaders agency over their appearance, enabling personalization while preserving a unified, professional look.

Our Approach

Interwoven Design approached the project as a modular performance system rather than a single uniform. The design process began with direct engagement with the cheerleaders, gathering insight into their preferences, pain points, and performance requirements. This collaborative approach ensured that the final collection responded to real athletic needs rather than surface-level aesthetics alone. The concept of a “cheer closet” guided the development of a capsule collection composed of nine core silhouettes designed to be mixed and matched by individual team members. These included a crop top, sports bras, unitard, track jacket, skirt, leggings, and boy shorts, offered in a range of Miami Dolphins–branded colorways.

This system-based approach allowed each cheerleader to select combinations that best suited her body, role, and performance needs while maintaining visual cohesion across the squad. Soft goods design focused on creating garments that moved seamlessly with the body, supported dynamic routines, and felt comfortable throughout long rehearsals, games, and appearances.

Engineered for Movement and Durability

Material selection was central to the success of the collection, and a particular challenge here. Interwoven sourced a breathable, moisture-wicking performance fabric engineered to resist visible color changes from perspiration, ensuring the uniforms maintained a fresh, polished appearance even during high-intensity routines. Strategically placed perforated textiles enhanced ventilation while adding subtle textural detail to the garments.

Athletic construction techniques were used throughout, incorporating internal support features and carefully engineered paneling to improve fit, stability, and comfort. These decisions allowed the garments to support demanding choreography without restricting range of motion or causing distraction during performance.

Impact

The final uniform and practice collection successfully unified performance and style, delivering soft goods that support athletic excellence while reinforcing brand identity. The “cheer closet” model gives team members agency and confidence, allowing them to personalize their look while presenting a consistent, elevated image as a squad.

A complementary makeup kit was also designed to align with the apparel color strategy, enabling a cohesive head-to-toe presentation for games, practices, and appearances. Together, the system underscores the Miami Dolphins Cheerleaders’ role as elite athletes and public representatives of the organization.

Supporting Movement, Comfort, and Confidence

Athletics is defined by movement, repetition, and intensity. Every sprint, pivot, jump, and recovery phase places unique demands on the body and on the products worn in motion. In this context, soft goods are not passive layers or branding surfaces; they are active participants in performance. The way a garment stretches, compresses, breathes, or stabilizes can influence confidence, endurance, and precision in ways that are felt long before they are noticed.

Well-designed athletic soft goods regulate temperature without distraction, support muscles without restricting movement, and adapt across training, competition, and recovery. When these systems are thoughtfully engineered, athletes can focus fully on their sport. When they fall short, friction appears in the form of discomfort, distraction, or compromised performance. The difference often lies in details: patterning, material behavior under sweat and strain, seam placement, and how a product responds over time.

At Interwoven Design, we approach athletic soft goods as performance systems rather than isolated products. Our work blends material intelligence, ergonomic construction, and brand strategy to create apparel and wearable solutions that move with the body and evolve with the demands of sport. Whether designing for emerging athletic categories or established performance disciplines, we prioritize comfort, adaptability, and long-term wearability alongside visual identity and market relevance.

We collaborate with athletic brands, innovators, and performance-driven organizations who recognize that great design is built through deep understanding of the body in motion. Together, we design soft goods that support athletes where it matters most: in the moments of effort, focus, and flow that define sport.Interwoven Design is a design consultancy that is positioned at the intersection of soft goods and wearable technology, creating products that function with the body and offer comfort as well as the superb performance that arises through the innovative incorporation of rigid, often electronic and responsive elements. Sign up for our newsletter and follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn for design news, multi-media recommendations, and to learn more about product design and development!

From Sketch to Shelf: The Soft Goods Industrial Design Process in 6 Steps

Bringing a product from an idea to reality is an exciting journey—one that blends creativity, technical expertise, and user-centered thinking. In the world of wearable technology, great design isn’t just about aesthetics; it’s about crafting solutions that seamlessly integrate into people’s lives. From the first sketch to the final product on the shelf, every step in the industrial design process plays a crucial role in shaping a wearable that is functional, comfortable, and market-ready. There are a lot of ways to break down the design process, and they all have their uses: the double diamond, the design thinking cycle. Search ‘design process’ and you’ll find endless diagrams and breakdowns. In this Insight article, we’ll walk you through the key stages of industrial design, giving you a behind-the-scenes look at how innovative products come to life.

Step 1: Research & Discovery

The journey of creating a standout product starts with diving deep into the world of research and discovery. This initial phase is all about truly understanding the problem at hand—getting to know the needs of the users, the latest trends in the market, and how competitors are shaping the landscape. By mapping out these elements, designers can pinpoint where opportunities for innovation lie, crafting solutions that stand out in a crowded market. This phase is about more than just solving a problem; it’s about creating something that resonates with users and is perfectly positioned to make an impact.

Interwoven SABER military exosuit — *The SABER Military Exosuit*

A key part of this research involves ethnographic studies and interviews with the target user community, which allow us to step into the shoes of the users. Through ethnography, we spend time in the real world with the people we’re designing for, understanding their habits, behaviors, and challenges. We did extensive research for our SABER Military Exosuit to understand the key tasks and body positions required of the soldiers who would be wearing the suit. This research was critical to understanding how to create a suit that would move effectively with the user. It’s a deeply immersive way of discovering what truly matters. Later, we’ll use these insights to develop testing protocols for our prototypes, ensuring that the design is not just functional, but also intuitive and user-friendly.

Step 2: Concept Development & Ideation

Once we’ve gathered our insights, it’s time to bring ideas to life through concept development and ideation. This stage is where creativity thrives, as designers explore different possibilities for form, function, and aesthetics. Sketching and early visualizations allow us to experiment with various design directions, refining the product’s overall look and feel. The goal is to create something that not only meets user needs but also resonates emotionally, balancing beauty with functionality. Sketching is a big part of every project we do at Interwoven Design, a great example being the Breg CrossRunner Knee Brace. We were open to many strategies for meeting the project requirements, and we sketched dozens of ideas before moving on to the prototyping stage. Every sketch brought us closer to finding the ideal design that would work both in concept and in reality.

Interwoven Sketch and prototype of the Breg Knee Brace — *A sketch and prototype for the Breg Knee Brace project by Interwoven Design Group.*

To refine our ideas further, we use mood boards, storyboards, and collaborative brainstorming sessions. Mood boards help convey the visual direction, pulling together textures, colors, and inspiration that guide the aesthetic choices. Storyboarding helps illustrate how users will interact with the product in real life, showcasing key moments in the user experience. Throughout this process, we collaborate closely with engineers, material scientists, and stakeholders to ensure feasibility. This interdisciplinary approach ensures the designs are not only innovative but also practical, considering technical limitations, material possibilities, and market needs from the outset. When working on our projects, which often involve collaborating with engineers, we find that integrating interdisciplinary teamwork from the outset helps refine concepts, making sure we’re not only dreaming big but also designing something that can be successful in the real world.

Step 3: Prototyping & Iteration

With the initial concepts solidified, the next step is to bring those ideas into the physical world through prototyping and iteration. This is where sketches and ideas begin to take shape in low fidelity mockups, allowing us to visualize proportions, details, and mechanics in a more tangible way. Whether it’s through 3D printing, foam models, or soft goods mockups, these prototypes give us the opportunity to test ideas early on, making it easier to spot potential issues with form or function before committing to more complex production processes. We create dozens—in some cases far more than dozens—of prototypes for every project. The Whitecloud Medical Utility Bag is a great example of this; we created a broad range of soft goods prototypes to experiment with how we could fit a specific set of tools and objects that nurses need at all times. Early prototyping is a crucial stage that allows us to keep iterating quickly and efficiently, staying agile throughout the design journey.

As prototypes are developed, user feedback becomes a vital component of the refinement process. Testing prototypes with real users provides invaluable insights into how the product feels, operates, and resonates in everyday use. Functional assessments help determine whether the design meets its intended purpose, from ease of use to durability. Based on this feedback, the design undergoes continuous refinement, adjusting features, ergonomics, or materials as needed. This iterative cycle ensures that the product evolves to better meet user needs and aligns with both aesthetic and functional goals before moving into the final stages of production.

Step 4: User Testing & Validation

Once the prototype is ready for real-world interaction, the next step is user testing and validation. At Interwoven Design, we consider user testing and validation to be an integral part of prototyping and ideating. User testing is crucial for ensuring that the design not only meets user expectations but also performs seamlessly in everyday use. By testing the product with a target group of users, designers gather valuable feedback on comfort, usability, and overall user experience. This hands-on testing helps identify any areas where the product may need adjustments—whether it’s improving ergonomics, simplifying functionality, or enhancing the user interface. In our Firefly workwear project, we had warehouse workers wear prototypes during their work day to observe the quality and durability of the jacket’s reflective coating. It’s all about making sure the design feels intuitive, comfortable, and effective in real-world scenarios.

Interwoven Firefly workwear jacket — *The Firefly workwear garment* *by Interwoven Design Group.*

Alongside user feedback, long-term wearability and durability are evaluated to ensure the product stands up over time. This involves rigorous testing to assess how the product holds up under everyday wear and tear, as well as ensuring it meets regulatory standards for safety and compliance. Based on the data collected, the design is refined to address any issues that arise, ensuring that it not only delights users but is also safe and reliable. This iterative process guarantees that the final product is both functionally sound and compliant, offering an exceptional experience that users can trust and enjoy over time.

Step 5: Technical Design & Sourcing

With a refined concept in hand, the next step is transitioning from idea to a manufacturable product. This phase focuses on engineering the design for production, ensuring that all aspects of the product can be realized efficiently and at scale. In this step, we generate all of the technical documentation to allow the manufacturer to understand every aspect of the design. In our Even Adaptive Lingerie project, we created additional technical design documentation to support the patent application for the custom clasp we designed.

Material sourcing is also important at this stage. The right materials must be chosen for both their functional properties—such as strength, flexibility, and weight—and their aesthetic qualities. Along with material considerations, wearability testing and durability assessments are conducted to guarantee that the product will stand up to everyday use while maintaining comfort and performance. These evaluations help refine the design, ensuring that it’s not only visually appealing but also reliable and practical in real-world conditions.

Collaborating with suppliers and manufacturers is a key part of this stage. Designers work closely with these partners to optimize production processes, ensuring that the design can be reproduced with consistency and efficiency. This includes refining techniques for assembly, tooling, and quality control, while also exploring opportunities to reduce costs or improve sustainability in the construction or in the manufacturing process. By maintaining an open dialogue with manufacturers and keeping an eye on potential production challenges, we can ensure that the design moves smoothly from the drawing board to the final product, ready for the market. This phase solidifies the design’s viability, ensuring it can be brought to life with precision and quality.

Step 6: Production & Launch

As the product nears completion, the focus shifts to the final stages of production and launch. This phase begins with finalizing manufacturing processes, ensuring that all production methods are optimized for scale and consistency. Quality control measures are put in place to maintain high standards throughout the production run, from material checks to final inspections. The goal is to ensure that each unit meets the exact specifications, preserving the integrity of the design and delivering a product that matches the vision set out at the beginning of the process.

Simultaneously, preparations are made for the product’s mass production, taking care to balance efficiency with design integrity. It’s essential that the product remains true to its initial concept, even as it moves into full-scale manufacturing. While this is happening, the marketing team works to build excitement for the launch, developing a compelling product narrative that connects emotionally with consumers. Product storytelling helps create a connection, communicating not just the features and benefits, but the values and story behind the design. This connection builds consumer trust and generates buzz, ensuring the product’s success in the market from day one.

Bringing it All Together

From the initial spark of inspiration to the final product launch, each stage of the industrial design process plays a critical role in creating wearable technology that not only looks good but works seamlessly in the lives of users. Every step—whether it’s research, prototyping, or technical design—helps shape a product that balances creativity, functionality, and user experience. A thoughtful, well-rounded design approach ensures that the product is not only technologically advanced but also user-friendly, making it easy for customers to integrate it into their daily lives with confidence and excitement.

At Interwoven Design, we believe that the best designs come from collaboration and a shared vision. We invite you to work with us to bring your ideas to life, whether you’re looking to refine an existing concept or develop an entirely new wearable tech solution. With our expert design and product development process, we’re here to guide you through every step, ensuring your product stands out in the market while meeting the highest standards of usability, functionality, and sustainability. Do you have a project you’d like to see come to life? Reach out!

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Check out the rest of our Insight series to learn more about the design industry. Sign up for our newsletter and follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn for design news, multi-media recommendations, and to learn more about product design and development!

A Q&A with Industrial Designer Alvaro Uribe

Spotlight articles shine a light on designers we admire, asking leaders in the field about their work and their design journey. In this interview, we spoke with industrial designer and educator Alvaro Uribe. Born in the U.S. and raised in Colombia, Alvaro’s career has been defined by a multidisciplinary approach, blending industrial design, UX/UI, and branding to create meaningful, experience-driven products. His work includes product design for leading brands, museum-exhibited creations, and an entrepreneurial venture that helped international brands navigate the U.S. market.

Industrial Designer Alvaro Uribe portrait — *Industrial designer and Pratt professor Alvaro Uribe. Photo courtesy of Alvaro Uribe.*

A graduate of Pratt Institute, Alvaro Uribe honed his craft at some of New York’s top design studios before launching his own practice in 2012. Alongside his professional work, he has built a distinguished academic career, serving as a tenured professor at Pratt and mentoring the next generation of designers. Alvaro wears many different hats. As a Design Director at American furniture brand Wooda, a UX/UI Lead with startups, and an industrial design consultant, he continues to shape the landscape in various industries while exploring how design can spark moments of delight and curiosity. We sat down with Alvaro to talk about starting his own practice, the challenges facing designers today, and how he balances artistic vision with commercial success.

Q:

Could you introduce yourself and tell me about how you came to be an industrial designer?

A:

I was born in Miami, but I grew up in Colombia and my immediate family is in Colombia. I came to the U.S. when I was 19 with the goal of pursuing industrial design. I actually wanted to be a Disney animator—that was my childhood dream—but making things with my hands was also something I enjoyed. I applied to schools to study industrial design but in Colombia the application isn’t based on a portfolio, it’s based on your SAT equivalent scores. My scores weren’t great, so I was not accepted to my main schools. I took that as a sign that maybe I should go somewhere else, so I came to New York. I spent a year applying to school, I got my first job working at an art supply store at the Art Students League of New York. I took courses there on metal welding and live drawing. I hold that year of my life as one of the best. Ultimately, I got into Pratt, Parsons, and RISD. There was something about Pratt that I really enjoyed when I visited the campus, so I went for Pratt. Also, my mother’s a designer, and I think that’s part of why I gravitated towards industrial design. She has a business doing Italian-style kitchen carpentry and I spent a lot of time in the factory making silly projects as a kid. I even went to Salon De Mobile before I went to college. That exposure to the Italian world was very inspiring to me, and I was fortunate to be surrounded by people in the design world early on.

Q:

What is your area of specialization within design? What drew you to it?

A:

I don’t see myself specialized, I consider myself a problem solver with a business mind. Having said that, I’ve become very comfortable with homegoods. I like anything around the home, whether it’s housewares, kitchen tools or the core; furniture and lighting. However, as a designer, I look to be challenged, so I’m constantly looking for new markets, new projects that will excite me and keep me on my toes. For instance six years ago, I started doing something completely different called Aztro Marketplace. I met a lot of my clients by visiting trade shows. In walking the trade shows, you realize how much money goes into visiting those trade shows, especially for international brands. If you’re coming from Spain, or you’re coming from Argentina, being in the U.S. for a trade show is very expensive. So I wondered, why isn’t there a platform that helps you connect with retailers here in the U.S.?

I had this idea back in 2015 and felt like it would be unfair to myself not to try it. So, in 2019, I started Aztro, which meant A-Z trading online. I built the platform from the ground up. It involved a lot of web development—working with programmers, understanding user flows—and that got me deep into UX/UI. I had to learn it the hard way because my business was constantly revisiting things and integrating feedback from stores or brands. I walked out of that experience very knowledgeable and it opened another path in my career: working with digital interfaces, whether websites or applications.

Q:

In 2012, you started your own studio. What motivated that leap, and how has your approach to design evolved as a result?

A:

The motivation was a biking accident that I had. I was freelancing for several consultancies in New York at the time. As much as I loved it—because I was getting my hands on a lot of different projects—I always felt like an outside entity, someone who was just passing through. One day, I got hit by a bus in Chinatown and my bike was destroyed. I was lucky that it wasn’t more serious, but I knew that I couldn’t say I was enjoying what I was doing if it had been worse. I needed a change. A few weeks later, Camille Thayer from Pratt emailed me, saying, “We need someone who knows Rhino and Solidworks. Would you be interested in teaching this class?” A lot of things just came together. I also had my first client offer me a project and I thought, Maybe this is a sign that I could do something on my own.

Q:

You work across disciplines, from industrial design to UX/UI and branding. How has this multidisciplinary approach influenced your perspective on product design?

A:

Earlier in my career, when I was doing a lot of product design, I was focused on the physicality of the product and manufacturing. Now I think more about the overall experience; the journey of why someone decides to use a product. What is the motivation? What are the pain points that drove them to want the product? UX opened me up to thinking about the product beyond just the moment of putting it on the shelf and walking away. UX is a user-centric way of thinking about how the product lives and how it fits into the user’s life.

Q:

Tell us about the idea of “emotional function” in your design philosophy. Could you share an example of a product where this principle was particularly successful?

A:

Kibo Piggy Bank for Nambe by designer Alvaro Uribe — *The Kibo Piggy Bank for Nambé, designed by Alvaro Uribe. Photo courtesy of Alvaro Uribe.*

We have these expectations of how things work. We walk into a space with an expectation of what’s going to happen or how something might look or work. I think that, as humans, we build connections with products that surprise and inspire us. When you buy a product, you’re expecting it to fulfill a specific function, but when it performs especially well, or when it sits on your shelf and you’re happy to see it, it exceeds your expectations, and creates an emotional connection. I feel like we live in a world where there are so many products. Looking back at my parents, they cherish their first camera. There was this sentimental connection with products because the products had done so much for them. They were also valuable. The appreciation I felt for products was much more present back then. I feel that now there’s an opportunity to have an emotional connection but it requires intention. It won’t happen by chance. A design I often get emails about is the Kibo Piggy Bank for Nambe, which delivers both functionally and aesthetically.

Q:

Industrial design balances artistic vision with business and user needs. How do you navigate this when developing a new product?

A:

Every client is different. Some projects are driven by market research—looking at what’s out there, identifying gaps, and creating something that fills a real need. Other clients live in more artistic or conceptual spaces, so the work leans more into visual storytelling or expression. Either way, as a designer, you’re responsible for making sure the product not only looks good but also functions efficiently and intuitively. That’s why UX and UI go hand in hand—they’re equally important. Take something as simple as a menu: it should clearly map the sections of a site, but who says it can’t also be exciting? A few years ago, I worked with a digital agency in Toronto on a corporate website. Instead of a standard dropdown, we used the golden ratio spiral to build a dynamic menu—featured projects had the most visual weight, secondary sections were subdominant, and older content took on a subtle, supportive role.

Q:

Like you, we are constantly partnering with engineers at Interwoven Design. Could you talk about the relationship between engineers and designers and how to get the most from that partnership?

A:

Engineers bring a level of analytical rigor that balances and elevates the more user-centered and experiential focus that designers often bring to the table. In any multidisciplinary collaboration, it’s the diversity of viewpoints—technical, aesthetic, functional—that leads to stronger, more market-ready products.

For example, when we’re working on something like an injection-molded product, engineers help ground the design in reality—highlighting constraints, opportunities for efficiency, and manufacturability. When you are working on an app, the programmers will be thinking about speed, efficiency and reliability of the system.The best collaborations happen when both sides listen and respect each other’s expertise. In my experience, when that mutual understanding exists, the process becomes incredibly fluid and effective.

Q:

Looking back at your body of work, could you share a project that stands out as especially meaningful to you?

A:

Two projects come to mind. The first is the mobile and desktop app I designed while serving as Head of Design at Outpave, a SaaS platform focused on expense management for small businesses in the construction industry. I had the privilege of working with an exceptionally talented and inspiring team, supported by bold, design-driven leadership. That made a world of difference—every detail mattered, and nothing was overlooked.

The challenge was tackling a space that’s often chaotic: contractors managing expenses across multiple vendors, job sites, and categories. By pairing a mobile app with a robust desktop experience, we gave users the flexibility to allocate expenses, track transactions, and simplify bookkeeping in a seamless way. The end result was a product that felt intuitive and fluid, even though it was handling deeply complex workflows. That’s what made it special—transforming a technically dense process into something smooth, clear, and beautifully simple.

*The Coliseum Chair for Slide Design, designed by Alvaro Uribe. Photo courtesy of Alvaro Uribe.*

The second project is the Coliseum Chair, which I designed for Slide Design, an Italian brand known for its bold indoor-outdoor furniture and strong storytelling through design. Collaborating with an Italian company was a dream come true—there’s a deep appreciation for artistic vision, paired with exceptional craftsmanship and manufacturing precision.

The chair itself was inspired by the architectural arches of the Roman Colosseum, reinterpreted into a sculptural, functional form. It quickly became an iconic piece for the brand and was prominently featured at last year’s Salone del Mobile, drawing attention for its blend of historic inspiration and contemporary aesthetics.

Q:

What are some of the biggest challenges facing industrial designers today, and how do you approach them in your own work?

A:

Keeping up with technology is a big challenge. There is so much at our disposal as designers, and learning them all feels challenging and potentially confusing. There’s so much more, but how do you integrate them properly into your process? It can easily feel like you’re trying everything but not using anything at its full potential. I think that’s a challenge.

From a job standpoint, I also feel that the industrial design consulting industry has gotten smaller since I was a student. It used to be mostly consultancies offering design services to brands but now many brands have in-house design teams. Even within in-house design teams, I feel like designers have become incredibly efficient. It used to be that you needed a big team of designers, but now a designer can do the job of three other designers. That’s challenging in the sense that there are only so many opportunities out there for the amount of industrial designers graduating every year.

Having said that, at the core of every industrial designer there’s always problem-solving. It’s been nice to see designers moving into strategy and other areas, applying that core skill of problem-solving to business, strategy, environmental practices, and so on.

Q:

What advice would you give to designers looking to create products that stand the test of time—both in function and emotional resonance?

A:

Two things. Do a lot of research, and try to have a process that allows you to make mistakes. Nowadays, we might spend an hour or two a day looking at social media. The amount of images we consume is not great for your design process. Inevitably, your brain will connect one idea to another, and then you’re feeding into this trend that we’re all reinforcing. Suddenly I feel like, I’ve seen this before. I can’t put my finger on where. One of the things I love about Pratt is that we teach abstraction; the ability to look at ideas in a very abstract way and sketch and allow yourself to have an idea that does nothing. And maybe it does do nothing, but maybe it triggered something that led you to the next idea. Today a lot of designers want to get to their idea without obstacles or without issues. As an industry, we need to embrace people showing their mistakes, showing their failures, showing what didn’t work out just as much as what did. When we celebrate that part of the process, that’s where innovation happens.

Q:

What concerns you about the future of industrial design? What gives you hope?

A:

Industrial design is unappreciated as an industry, in my opinion. I think we bring a lot of value to businesses but we can be seen as a commodity. It’s like design-washing, where the company calls something design but it’s not really design. Industrial design is such a robust field. When you’re studying industrial design, you’re expected to master a wide range of skills—sketching, CAD, rendering, user research, market research, prototyping, model making, craft, understanding materials and manufacturing processes. You also learn to think strategically about product lifecycles and marketing. It’s so much more than just making things look good.

Yet when you step into the job market, the salaries often don’t reflect the depth or value of that expertise. And that’s frustrating—because the impact of good design is tangible. You can measure it, track it, and see how it drives success. Some brands get this—they’re design-led, and they invest in it properly. But they’re the exception. Too much of the industry still undervalues design, keeping it in the underdog position it doesn’t deserve.

We build connections with products that surprise and inspire us.

When it comes to hope for the industry, I believe in the resilience of designers. At their core, designers are problem-solvers—not just in their work, but in how they navigate their own paths. Many are already pivoting into new industries, bringing fresh perspectives wherever they go. Emerging fields like artificial intelligence are opening doors for industrial designers to shape all kinds of human experiences, far beyond physical products. The market is evolving, and designers have the adaptability and creativity to evolve with it.

Q:

What’s next for you? Are there any upcoming projects you’re particularly excited about?

A:

I have a range of work across both industrial design and UX, and it’s always exciting—but lately, I’ve felt a growing urge to be part of something bigger, where I can make a deeper impact. I’m now open to the idea of joining a team if the right opportunity comes along. In the meantime, I have some exciting new collections launching with clients, including a Judaica collection for Nambe, branding and web development for Wooda, barware items with a Portuguese brand, new projects with brands in Italy, and mentoring young talent alongside my role as a professor.

On top of that, I’ve been even more energized by my personal projects. Over the past year, I’ve really gotten into 3D printing as manufacturing. The idea of what a brand is is shifting, and I believe designers are increasingly becoming brands themselves. 3D printing is a powerful catalyst for that shift—it removes the barriers of minimum orders and tooling costs, allowing you to design, produce, and sell directly to your own audience. You can now launch a product that feels just as refined as something on a store shelf, but with full control over the customer experience. That kind of creative freedom is incredibly exciting to me. I want to explore it firsthand. Knowing myself, I’ll definitely give it a shot.

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We hope you enjoyed this interview with industrial designer Alvaro Uribe! Check out the rest of our Spotlight series to hear more from leaders in the design industry. Sign up for our newsletter and follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn for design news, multi-media recommendations, and to learn more about product design and development!