If you have some free time, check out the “How Did You Get Into That” podcast featuring former Jordan Brand design lead D’Wayne Edwards.
Edwards goes over how he started his working career from flipping burgers at McDonald’s to working at LA Gear, to his eventual rise to designing the Melo line, as well as the Jordan XX1 and XX2. Edwards goes over the design inspiration behind those Jordan legacy sneakers with a particularly funny story about presenting the XX2 to MJ.
Additionally, Edwards talks about how he got his start with Nike and shares some advice about the work. Edwards talks about this for aspiring designers but it definitely applies for any other role as well.
Edwards eventually left Jordan Brand and started his own sneaker design school called PENSOLE. In case you missed it, we had the chance to interview Edwards’ students at PENSOLE and discuss the design process and the differences between designing off-court sneakers and performance sneakers.
Let us know your thoughts, on any part of the interview, in the comments below.
Great post!!!! Dwayne is actually one of my role models because I’m actually trying to pursue a job in Industrial Design (and then focus on shoe designing)! Pensole’s been an academy i’ve always wanted to go to……damn I would love to design the future NBA stars’ shoes!
Like he said in the podcast, it doesn’t hurt to email him!
Very cool will have to check it out.