A love for sewing, the outdoors and human-centred design drew Sophie Becker to Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) — where her design ideas are quickly gaining traction.
Becker won first place in the second annual Student Pitch Competition at KPU, winning over judges by presenting a design for specialized cycling apparel suited for female cyclists.
“It's validating to get this idea out there and feel encouraged that it could actually be something,” says Becker, a student in the Post-Baccalaureate Diploma in Technical Apparel Design program at the Wilson School of Design at KPU. “The biggest next step for me is focusing on materials, and now I can finance that exploration with my winnings, which is huge.”
On May 1, eight student teams from KPU put their bold ideas to the test in the Student Pitch Competition. Organized by the Melville School of Business at KPU, the interdisciplinary competition brings together a diverse group of students seeking to convince industry and alumni judges their business, product, innovation or social initiative is worth supporting. Pitches from finalists spanned productivity and wellness tools, gaming and clean energy systems, and fashion and performance apparel, among others.
Besides a $5,000 first-place prize, Becker also gained mentoring opportunities from instructors along the way.
“I was able to speak with business and design professors and mentors which helped me refine how I positioned and communicated my project. It was really helpful to get that external feedback since I'm just a one-person team at the moment.”
Becker’s cycling shorts system caters specifically to female bike tourists.
“Bike touring requires light packing, so I’m seeking to develop a removable chamois — the inner padding in bike shorts — which can be inserted into different liners depending on the needs and preferences of the cyclist. Right now I'm focused on women bike tourists, but there's opportunity for this to expand in the future,” she says.
Earning second place and a $2,500 prize, Sarah Collister’s pitch was a fashion collection of modular formalwear for women. Collister completed a Bachelor of Design in Fashion and Technology this spring, and the collection was her capstone project.
She says the majority of women wear any given formal outfit just once, so her collection — floor-length gowns and suits that can be detached, interchanged or worn in multiple ways — seeks to change that.
“By creating customizable, modular separates, women can change up their formal looks and integrate these items into their wardrobes regularly.”
Collister began crafting her pitch in January, when she attended her first workshop with Melville School of Business instructor Afshin Doustmohammadi. He was an amazing help, she says, particularly to a non-business student trying to develop her first pitch. Later she was matched with another Melville School of Business instructor, Jeannette Paschen, who mentored her to perfect her pitch for the final round.
“I learned so much about business, even though it isn’t my degree path. In the end I felt like I created a pitch I was proud of based on designs I’ve been working tirelessly on, and the support throughout the process made it all worth it.”
Placing third and earning a $1,500 award was Quan Yan, a KPU Bachelor of Business Administration student. Her pitch: an identity verification software aimed at helping small and medium-sized businesses verify customer identities more efficiently.
Yan made it to the final round with support from instructors, who helped her simplify and clearly communicate a highly technical business-to-business compliance concept.
“The final round was both intense and rewarding,” says Yan. “One of my biggest takeaways is that building a business is not something that happens overnight. Entrepreneurship is a continuous process of refining, iterating and improving.”
