Utah State University’s Outdoor Product Design and Development (OPDD) program was created by USU associate professor Lindsey Shirley in 2015. Created in response to the growth of the outdoor products industry and the rise in demand for technical design programs beneficial for the Utah community and economy, the program was the first of its kind in the nation.



In 2017, USU Special Collections and Archives (SCA) partnered with the College of Agriculture and Applied Science's OPDD program to develop a historical collection of books, catalogs, periodicals, photographs, and manuscripts documenting the history of outdoor gear. These materials, together with the strong environmental collections SCA has already built since the early 1970s, form the Outdoor Recreation Archive. To learn more about the Outdoor Recreation Archive, see Outdoor Recreation Archive: Home Libguide .



From 2015 to 2025, the Outdoor Product Design and Development program operated out of the College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences until its closure in 2025. The program now operates out of the S.J. and Jessie E. Quinney College of Agriculture and Natural Resources under the Department of Technology Design and Technical Education.