The annual Black Footwear Forum took place at Pensole Lewis College of Business and Design in Detroit from Thursday to Sunday, gathering professionals from the fashion industry for reflection and mentorship through programming and networking.
From reflections on the state of DEI in the U.S. to the experiences of women making it in fashion to celebrations of iconic sneaker collaborations, the Black Footwear Forum brought a range of meaningful conversations to Pensole Lewis College. Looking back at the programming, FN rounds up five key takeaways from this year’s iteration of the conference:
Related Stories
The Importance of Fostering Community and Relationships
Brandice Daniel, founder and chief executive officer of Harlem’s Fashion Row which champions designers of color, said during a talk on DEI with PLC Detroit president Dr. D’Wayne Edwards and Rainbow Disruption founder and CEO Jarvis Sam, “What makes Harlem’s Fashion Row work is that there’s this community at the core of everything that we do, and we built what we built around community — whether that is a community of creatives, from stylists to editors to brand partners, it’s been a part of what we do, and we have always approached it with real, authentic relationships. That also withstands the test of time. It’s very difficult to last when you have transactional relationships.”
You May Also Like
Community building also means surrounding yourself with the right people. Edwards said in the same conversation, “To me, there’s two types of people in the world: there’s energy givers and takers. Unfortunately, we often have too many takers around us, and y’all need to edit your life. Take inventory on a daily basis of how many takers are you interacting with — and that means text messages, social media, your coworkers, boss, whatever.”
Meanwhile, rapper Roxanne Shante discussed the importance of how you treat other people while in conversation with streetwear icon April Walker for a talk called “Sisters in Sole: Queens Building Bridges With Kings.” “It’s your personality that gets you through those doors. It’s not your Ph.D., it’s your personality,” she said. “You treat people good, you will look good for the rest of your life.”
Embracing Authenticity
Multihyphenate creative Ameera Haynes said during the breakout session “Butterfly Effect: Women, Culture & Creative Resilience,” “I’m just trying to use my voice authentically. I feel like there’s a lot of people out here telling stories that are not authentic. And I don’t know if everybody else can tell, but I can tell. They don’t mean anything to me. They don’t make me feel anything. Life and just human experience, art in general, it should make you feel something. I feel like I have a unique voice that’s unlike other people, and it deserves to be heard. And I feel like, if I get to share my voice, hopefully it encourages other people to share their voice.”
In a conversation focused on the NBA’s Detroit Pistons and the intertwining of fashion, culture and sport, Jordan Hibbet, retail marketing coordinator for the Pistons, spoke of how important it is to create collaborations with local designers that can communicate what it means to be from Detroit to outsiders and simultaneously resonate with the people of the city.
Hibbet said, “It’s on us as the Pistons organization, not only as marketers but the whole company, to make sure that we’re giving local designers the autonomy to authentically share their stories and experiences in Detroit. That’s the only way that these collaborations will come off authentic.”
Leaning Into Discomfort Leads to Success
At the breakout session called “Athlete to Architect: The Shai x Converse Journey” by Nike Inc., Edwards said the Shai 001 signature shoe made with NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander reminded him of how he would try to push the boundaries during his time designing at Jordan Brand.
“We wanted to create a love-hate, an uncomfortable relationship with the product when you see it for the first time,” Edwards said. “We would go out to the marketplace, and show product.…We would just go to the mall with a bag of shoes and open it. And whoever was in the mall at the time, you got to see new Jordans before they came out. And for us, because we wanted the raw reaction, and if you liked it, we changed it. If you liked the first time you saw it, we would change it.
He explained, “We did that because we wanted to push your consciousness of what new was. So as humans, when we see something for the first time, we have to relate it to something in our brains. And when you can’t relate it to something, you don’t like it. And we’re like ‘Fantastic.'”
Prioritize Wellness and Balance to Be Your Best Self
For her talk called “Work Place Wellness and Resilience,” Nicole Lauria, who has her own consulting venture, recalled a time during her career at Disney when she woke up in Australia for work and didn’t know where she was or why she was there — this led to her initiating a break for the team which allowed them to recalibrate and still successfully complete their project.
“Resilience we’ve been taught since we were young,” Lauria said. “Now that we’re in the workforce, we’re told to stand tall, push through, no matter the cost. But what happens when you’re only focused on resilience? We experience burnout, we lose clarity, often times it impacts our health. But wellness combined with resilience is sustainable, and that’s what I define as workplace wellness.”
Walker broached the topic as well in conversation with Shante: “I learned about burnout more than once and now I have a toolbox of self care items. For me, it’s meditation. It’s being at one with nature daily. It’s my walks. It’s my prayer life. It’s trying to get eight hours of sleep. It’s certain things I do to treat myself.”
Commitment and Excellence
Shante explained how alternative avenues can be explored when there are barriers along one’s journey: “What kept me going when doors was closed is I figured out things to do outside of those doors until those doors opened. Sometimes when the door closes, stay in good shape, you can climb through the window.”
Walker said during her talk with Shante, “I think you have to be so committed to your dream, and once you really are committed and you really believe in it yourself, nobody can tell you what’s for you and what’s not.”
Frequent Saucony collaborator Jae Tips, in conversation with Saucony’s global director of energy and collaborations Jason Faustino, emphasized how well you need to know your artistic vision when working with brands: “When you walk into these rooms with people that work for these brands, you have to be very sure of yourself. You have to be very particular on what you want, what your vision is, and those decks and that idea has to be real bulletproof.”
During a breakout session focused on five decades of Black footwear designers, Jordan Brand chief product officer Jason Mayden offered, “You got two choices in life, go or don’t go. That’s really it, that’s it. There’s no gray area. You can get after it or you don’t. That’s how I live my life, that’s how I operate. I don’t necessarily worry about the fear of failure, I worry about the fear of mediocrity and not even trying. So the first step in being successful is to take the first step, regardless of what that looks like.”