A vintage JanSport backpack, whose owner used to wear on hiking trips throughout the United States and Asia. … A Helinox camping chair that was a prized Christmas gift until it broke during the pandemic. … A rainfly cover and carabiner that once belonged to Syracuse University’s Barnes Center at The Arch.
Lilyan “Lily” Minicozzi ’26 is an industrial and interaction design major in the College of Visual and Performing Arts.
They are just some of the items that Lilyan “Lily” Minicozzi ’26 has collected and repurposed for a special project called Full Circle.
Co-funded by the Center for Fellowship and Scholarship Advising (CFSA) and the Syracuse Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Engagement, Full Circle demonstrates the “circularity” of hiking and outdoor equipment.
“Circularity is a system where products are designed, used, and then recycled or repurposed,” says Minicozzi, an industrial and interaction design major in the College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA).
With the success of secondhand platforms like eBay, Depop and Facebook Marketplace (not to mention Goodwill Industries and The Salvation Army), circularity makes economic and environmental sense.
It’s also a stark contrast, Minicozzi explains, to the “take-make-dispose” model of linear design, which drains natural resources and contributes to environmental problems—water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, among them.
“For circularity to succeed, users and businesses need to align their actions with their values. Emotional considerations are important,” she adds.
The aspiring designer is convinced that everything—even stuff that’s used and discarded—has a story to tell. By weaving together different, “pre-existing” elements, a new narrative emerges.
It’s a process that often appeals to people’s sense of nostalgia, their persisting emotional connection with a product, item or brand. It also makes mindful, or conscious, consumption “more approachable and desirable,” Minicozzi points out.
“Full Circle reflects my passion for the outdoors and my interest in circularity as a philosophy and business strategy,” she says. “It’s my activism—reimagining the customer experience while helping the environment.”
Minicozzi’s Full Circle project is co-funded by the Center for Fellowship and Scholarship Advising and the Syracuse Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Engagement.
Living Responsibly
Minicozzi’s backpack prototype, made exclusively from donations, reflects the “circular” ethos of Full Circle.
Growing up in the foothills of the Adirondacks, Minicozzi fell in love with nature at an early age.
“I spent most of my childhood outdoors,” recalls the Rome, New York, native, whose family has deep ties to the University. In addition to her grandparents Faith Murphy G’90 and Francis Minicozzi ’70, her sisters Kayleigh ’08, Madelyn ’18 and Abigail ’24 all bleed Orange. Lily’s brother Benjamin ’24 and sister Ellyza ’28, in turn, are affiliated with the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.
Minicozzi was a sophomore in high school when she launched an eco-conscious fashion line called LilacSun, which sold at the Wildflowers Armory in downtown Syracuse.
After enrolling at VPA, Minicozzi teamed up with Abigail, who opened a secondhand clothing shop near campus called The Cherry Pit Collective.
“I take something that a person gives me and remake it into a product infused with my own aesthetic and artistic style,” Minicozzi says.
“Our parents taught us to live responsibly, to respect the environment,” says Minicozzi, who also was the co-recipient of a $15,000, first-place award from the University’s inaugural Green Innovation Competition, for which she proposed a novel waste-reduction and recycling system on campus.
But it’s Full Circle that occupies a unique place in her portfolio because of its narrative ethos. Just as jeans are a badge of rugged individuality, hiking and outdoor gear symbolize freedom and exploration. They also evoke memories and family history.
“I’ve always been into bespoke pieces—taking something that a person has given me and remaking it into a product infused with my own aesthetic and artistic style,” says Minicozzi, who’s past president of the Syracuse chapter of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA).
Assistant professor Michael Kowalski ’06 is an IDSA faculty mentor. “Lily sees opportunities where others see waste,” he observes. “She has the vision and persistence to move ideas from initial vision to successful implementation.”
“Lily sees opportunities where others see waste,” says Michael Kowalski ’06, an assistant professor in VPA’s School of Design.
Coming Full Circle
CFSA Assistant Director Melissa Welshans G’17 has also enjoyed watching the evolution of Minicozzi’s work. She attributes much of Minicozzi’s entrepreneurial success to humility and a “sense of purpose.”
Minicozzi wants to “come full circle” by launching a website devoted to bespoke camping gear.
This was evident at the onset of Full Circle, for which Minicozzi distributed fliers requesting “used or broken” camping gear. Her first respondent was a Syracuse donor whose late husband had been an avid outdoorsman.
“He had a JanSport framed backpack that went everywhere with him, from trips through the Adirondacks and the Rockies to places overseas,” Minicozzi recalls. “But after he passed away, the backpack just sat there. Nobody used it nor could bring themselves to throw it away.”
That’s when she decided the pack could become the basis for Full Circle.
Other donations followed. Professor of Practice Yves Michel, who served as Minicozzi’s faculty mentor on the project, marveled at how everything fell into place. “Her original plan was to reclaim old, unused camping and outdoor equipment. But the more she talked to people, the more she wanted to incorporate their [donations’] backstories into the project.”
Full Circle culminated in Minicozzi’s design and construction of a lightweight, durable backpack made exclusively from donations—a panoply of used fabric, texture and weave.
Although Minicozzi beams at the mere mention of her backpack prototype, she hopes to “come full circle” by launching a website devoted to bespoke camping gear.
“I’m excited to see where I land,” says Minicozzi, an aspiring designer.
“I envision a software that pulls from a database of donations, allowing you to custom make something,” she says. “The kicker is that each donated element has its own narrative—a story, an anecdote, some archival photos—that informs your design. This helps you become emotionally invested in your creation.”
Fresh from the Daniel and Gayle D’Aniello Syracuse University Program in Florence, Minicozzi is excited to make her mark on the global stage. “Whether I enroll in graduate school or take an entry-level job, I’m excited to see where I land,” says the rising senior. “Syracuse has prepared me for every possibility.”
To contribute to or follow the progress of Full Circle, please visit @lilyminibydesign on Instagram.
