After a colorful career as a design director of Nike and now having ‘retired’ to establish the Pensole Footwear Design Academy in Portland, Oregon, D’Wayne Edwards has been showing no signs of slowing down.
The self-educated footwear designer came from a rough neighborhood in Los Angeles and got his first job at LA Gear after submitting a redesign of one of their existing shoe designs. After impressing the design directors at LA Gear and establishing himself as somebody with a lethal eye for great footwear design, he moved to Portland, Oregon and became one of Nike’s youngest design directors ever at the age of 30. Before retiring just a few years ago, he had designed signature shoes for everybody from Michael Jordan and Carmelo Anthony to Derek Jeter and host of other professional athletes.
In a recent talk he gave for FastCo Design’s 2014 Innovation By Design Awards And Conference, he discusses how the philosophies of Bruce Lee ultimately helped shape his path as a designer.
Perhaps there’s something in there for you, too?
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