795. Jinger Gottschall, New Balance Director of Sports Research

"I am nowhere near close to being an expert, and that’s part of why I wanted this job — a challenge."

Imagine you're a real-life woman in STEM. Someone who loves numbers, data, hypotheses, constants, and thoroughly researched experiments with scientifically-backed outcomes. Imagine you're also an athlete. A triathlete, specifically. So, what's the dream job? Triathlete in STEM Jinger Gottschall found it: Director of Sports Research at New Balance. In her role, Jinger oversees a team whose job it is to create, research, test, and design shoes and apparel that maximize performance and minimize injury. In this conversation — recorded in the Sports Research Lab at The TRACK at New Balance — Jinger talks about what her job entails, why she wanted this job, where work still needs to be done when testing products for men vs. women, and just how many pairs of shoes are in her closet.

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In this episode:

• What it’s like working at the New Balance Sports Research Lab (2:40)
• How Jinger describes her job (3:45)
• What it’s like when the pros come into the lab (6:30)
• How Jinger has learned about all the sports New Balance covers (11:45)
• How Jinger got the job she has today (14:30)
• On testing competitors’ shoes (24:30)
• The lab, by the numbers (33:00)
• Jinger’s take on testing for women’s products (35:45)
• What a day in the life is like at New Balance (43:45)
• Jinger’s favorite feature in the sports research lab, her favorite shoes, and more (48:20)

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