On Friday, October 28, six young patients from OHSU Doernbecher will reveal their personally designed Nike sneaker, apparel and equipment collections. The Doernbecher Freestyle XVIII patient-designers are (L-R): Riddhi Mahajan, Jaren Heacock, Kylee Young, Emerson Harrell, Coley Miller and Dario Villaseñor Valdivia. (Jason Hill)

The 18^th Doernbecher Freestyle program — a partnership between Oregon Health & Science University Doernbecher Children’s Hospital and Nike — will return to an in-person format for the first time since 2019, prior to the global coronavirus pandemic.

Six young patients from OHSU Doernbecher have been working closely with expert Nike creative teams to design their very own sneaker, apparel and equipment collections. The big reveal will come in October.

These highly sought-after collections represent each patient-designer’s medical journey, interests and relationships with loved ones and health care providers. Importantly, the collections also provide a unique opportunity for each child to give back to the hospital that helped save their lives.

Since 2004, Doernbecher Freestyle has engaged 110 patient-designers and hundreds of Nike employee-volunteers to make each patient’s design dreams come true.

Over the years, each collection has been auctioned and sold — with Nike donating 100% of the retail profits to OHSU Doernbecher — to raise nearly $31 million for the children’s hospital. This one-of-a-kind collaboration between OHSU Doernbecher and Nike has helped to cover the cost of care for families in need, expand pioneering research that benefits kids around the world, and support specialized care unavailable anywhere else in the region.

“Without philanthropy like this generous partnership with Nike, its retailers and the Doernbecher Freestyle program, OHSU Doernbecher might not be able to deliver the exceptional care that we are honored to provide children across Oregon and the region,” says Dana Braner, M.D., FAAP, FCCM, Credit Unions for Kids chair and professor of pediatrics (critical care) in the OHSU School of Medicine, and physician-in-chief for OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital. “This program is not only a joy for our patients to participate in, the support it provides is also vital to helping children who become our patients in the future.”

Meet the Doernbecher Freestyle XVIII patient-designers: