| For the second consecutive year, Future Sole design competition has given the once in a lifetime opportunity to some of the most talented aspiring footwear designers. Headed up by Jordan Brand’s Director of Footwear Design, D’Wayne Edwards, the program gives high school aged kids the chance to have their work seen by some of the industries biggest designers. The contest kicked off back in April, but after 250,000 hits, 4,500 registered users, and 274 submissions, it was down to just 4.
The four finalists were Austin Jermacans from Reading, PA, Daniel Gold from Los Angeles, CA, Matthew DeAlmeida from Arlington, MA, and Ethan Dean from Rochester, MI. Each of the four were mentored by top Nike and Jordan Brand designers for the final project including Justin Taylor, Mark Miner, Marc Dolce, and Denis Dekovic. For the finals, the final four were divided into two groups to face off on designing a concept Jordan Melo M6 and Nike Hyperdunk. |
On Monday the finalists of this competition were brought to Nike’s Beaverton Campus for a day that surely none of them will forget. The final four designers toured Campus getting to see where some of the most inspired minds create the footwear we are all fans of. Walking around the grounds almost sounds like a tour of sports hall of fame. They started in the lobby of the Jerry Rice building, grabbed breakfast in the Mia Hamm building, walked past the Tiger Woods auditorium, saw state of the art facilities in the Bo Jackson training center, and of course made a stop in the Michael Jordan building.
Each of the finalists were given 15 minutes to present their shoe to a panel of legendary Jordan and Nike designers, decision makers, and a couple bloggers. Besides a professional story board that illustrated their sources of inspiration, and features of their shoes, a Z-Corp model was made of each of their works giving each designer a real life model of their design. Following their presentations came round of tough questions about everything from sources of inspiration, material choices, branding and logo placement, and even what they project the weight of the final product would be.
Every second of the 20 minutes set aside for judging was taken as deciding what concept or design was better was not an easy task to accomplish. Jason Mayden, Senior Footwear Designer for Jordan Brand announced the winners to a crowd performed drum roll. Austin Jermacans was selected as the winner of the Jordan Melo M6 side of the competition and Matthew DeAlmeida as the winner of the Nike Hyperdunk end.
As the second Future Sole came to a close that evening, it was clear that though votes were tallied and names were announced, the lineup featured four winners. The experience and mentoring that these kids received throughout this process was something that ever designer at Nike said that they wish they had at these kid’s ages.
Congrats to all who took part in Future Sole 2009. We’re looking forward to 2010!
