Veteran Nike designer opens footwear design school

Former Nike and Jordan Brand shoe designer D'Wayne Edwards started The Pensole School of Footwear Design  in partnership with the University of Oregon School of Architecture and Allied Arts in Portland last year.

"I teach the way you'd learn if you were at a company," said Edwards, 41, a veteran of more than two decades in footwear design who has personally designed shoes for NBA stars Michael Jordan and Carmelo Anthony. 

Oregon was responsible for more footwear patents than any other between 1990 and 2010, and can stake a claim as the hub of footwear design nationally. "Oregon has the nation's foremost concentration of athletic and outdoor companies," economist Joe Cortrightwrote in a 2010 study, "The Athletic and Outdoor Industry Cluster." 

Cortright wrote the paper for the Portland Development Commission, which is working with several universities to establish an apparel and footwear education center in Portland, said Jennifer Nolfiof the PDC. Edwards' program, which recruits talented young designers handpicked by the founder, is a start, Nolfi said.

Read more at OregonLive.com.

{biztweet}footwear design{/biztweet}