This summer, 30 young students from all the around the world have come together in Portland, Oregon, determined to change the footwear game by embarking in the PENSOLE World Sneaker Championship. Assigned to teams and representing a diverse range of brands, boutiques and major corporations across the industry, they’ve began their journey to design a product that’s ready for retail. These are their stories.
TEAM ADIDAS
Roster: Dexter Sulit, Claudia Lopez, Daniel Raes and Marcus Taylor (CMF)
Design is on a timeline but ideas aren’t. Today, I spent the whole day sketching different versions of a concept, trying to figure out what’s missing. I even looked into a poster of past innovative Adidas products to find common design elements. I made some progress but then D’Wayne told me to try something I didn’t want to do. I thought it might be more functional but didn’t look better to me. I did it anyways just to see. The designs faced mixed reviews. Then I tried combining the two and I found that great idea. It is more functional, visually interesting and fits perfectly within the story. What more could you ask for? We will need final designs soon so my next task is to focus on the details that will elevate the shoe into something that can be made into an actual product.
I’ve been told that recruiters and representatives from Nike and Adidas will be visiting in the near future. This will help us get a feel for what exactly the companies are looking for in a candidate and then it is on us to provide them with that content. This particularly interested me because I am in search of a job. I moved to Portland to be near the companies and I want to start living my dream. Being at Pensole is the closest thing to that dream at the moment but hopefully soon I will be employed by a footwear company. The time is now for me to take the opportunities that the World Sneaker Championship has brought me and turn them into success.
So Red Bull restocked us on more flavors than I knew they had. We’ll need these next week. Thanks Red Bull! Wilson Smith, a 30-year Nike vet, stopped by for a short visit. I’m sure the legend will return to give us feedback.
