DESIGN DIRECTOR, GLOBAL KIDS FOOTWEAR at Converse (2024-05 – 2025-09)
Owned Converse's global baby, toddler, kids and tweens footwear business - the brand's fastest-growing category during a period of broader company headwinds. Left role to relocate internationally to Montreal, QC.
- Led the only Converse category reporting growth during company-wide brand headwinds, managing ~130 SKUs and 4 new models per season
- Protected design team's creative capacity from reactive executive requests by reframing into focused briefs - delivering what leadership needed without burning the team's time or morale on unnecessary iteration
- Led a 7+ person cross-functional team through company reorganization with grounded, honest communication - earning promotion for performance and leadership during periods of organizational instability
- Identified a gap in post-reorg training and built a self-serve peer skill-share resource (Miro board), enabling designers to upskill independently when senior mentorship time was scarce
LEAD DESIGNER, MEN'S, WOMEN'S, SPORT CATEGORIES at Converse (2016 – 2024)
Progressed over eight years in multiple categories from Designer II to Senior to Lead Designer at Converse – bringing together technical craft, trend research, organizational fluency and leadership, laying the foundation for later category direction.
- Initiated a Global Seasonal Colour overhaul after a deep-dive into colour performance by SKU across multiple seasons revealed significant untapped revenue potential. Secured leadership buy-in, then co-led the 10-person cross-functional working group that took the program from concept to the powerful revenue driver it became
- Managed the resulting program for 5 years, delivering year-on-year growth in sell-in and sell-through
- Generated global colour palettes via thorough trend and brand analysis and presented resulting strategic recommendations to the product creation organization and leadership (VPs of Product, Development and Design and at times CEO) for 20 super seasons
- Led and executed colour design across product lines while designing uppers, materials, and details, and contributing to print and pattern design and retail merchandising, for ~40 seasons
SPORTS FOOTWEAR LEAD, COLOR + TREND TEAM at Reebok (2015 – 2016)
Set global seasonal colour and creative direction for Reebok's sports footwear category - translating trend research into palettes, dye development and brand storytelling that guided design teams rather than designing product directly.
- Interpreted trend research and developed seasonal colour palettes for sports footwear, traveling to dye houses to develop precise, production-ready shades
- Built the creative narrative and direction behind each seasonal palette, then presented it to the full product creation organization – up to CEO level
- Ran cross-functional workshops with sports category colour designers to align on palette application, storytelling, and cross-functional negotiation during the design phase - one of 4 colour leads (alongside 2 apparel and 1 Classics footwear) shaping direction across the brand
- Produced Reebok's seasonal sales magazine, showcasing the design direction, creative process and product
COLOR DESIGNER at Nike (2015 – 2015)
Entered footwear design as a colour design contractor, bringing a craft and small-batch furniture background into mass-production design for the first time - hired onto Nike's running category with a fast-track path to full-time. Contract concluded when a relocation to Boston took priority.
- Colour design for 50 SKUs in a single season within Nike's core performance running category, under an accelerated onboarding track
- Contributed to seasonal kickoff for a second season, gaining early exposure to Nike's trend research and colour development process
FURNITURE STUDIO OWNER & EDUCATOR at Heno/Oregon College of Art & Craft (2010 – 2015)
- Owned and operated a high-end custom residential and commercial furniture business (clients including Danner Boots, Tanner Goods, Casework Interior Design, Cardinal Club restaurant), mastering fabrication, craft and client relations
- Taught furniture design and building to adults, developing curriculum for 6-week intensives and weekend workshops (teaching overlapped with experience below by 2 years)
FURNITURE DESIGNER AND BUILDER at Fieldwork Design + more (2004 – 2012)
- Ran the furniture shop for an architecture firm, specializing in custom welded steel and timber furniture for commercial clients (Keen, Vestas, Nike) and high-end residential clients
- Built craft-expertise across multiple studios: including in the furniture lab of Surround Architecture; fine cabinetry, retail millwork and as sole builder for studio furniture artist Stephen Hogbin
