To approach innovative teaching, prototype development of tennis wear for female
baby boomers was incorporated into the product development course. This semesterlong project, fully funded by Cotton Incorporated, guided students in identifying the
needs of female baby boomers who play tennis and then designing appropriate tennis
wear. Twelve female tennis participants aged between 55 and 66 were interviewed in
a focus group. To mirror fashion industry practice, students worked in teams including with real-world clients. The functional, expressive, and aesthetic consumer needs
model (Lamb and Kallal in Cloth Text Res J 10:42–47, 1992) provided the conceptual
framework for the project, and the students took the FEA design criteria into account
when developing tennis wear prototypes that met the needs of the baby boomers.
At the end of the semester, a panel of faculty judges who fall within the age group of
baby boomers and who play tennis regularly evaluated the student groups’ work and
selected the three winning teams using the following criteria: creativity, quality (i.e.,
construction, tech pack [garment measurements], and ft), presentation (i.e., storyboard
and oral presentation), and readiness for production.

• An innovative teaching approach to product development: creating tennis wear for female baby boomers