Don’t know how many Londoner’s there are on here but thought I’d let those that are know that Nike footwear designer, Georgina James is giving a talk at the New Designers exhibition on 13th July. As well a whole load of other Nike EMEA guys. Should be intresting.
Here’s the link - http://www.newdesigners.com/page.cfm/link=377
Don’t spose if anyone knows of Georgina James and knows any footwork she’s worked on?
I don’t know Georgina, but I’ve worked with Jason Fulton before and I’m sure his talk will be great.
Im going for sure.
An ex-cordwainers graduate should be very interesting, not many make as high as Nike.
Should be a great talk cant wait.
Thanks for posting this, i will be sure to get down.
I know Jason Fulton worked on the first woven shoe.
Did you guys go?
I managed to see two of the talks. Georgina James and Jason Fulton’s.
Georgina had only been working at Nike for four months and it was kind of clear it was one of her first public talks. Still it was good to hear her story and how she made it, though I was surprised to hear she was only just getting into photoshop renderings!
Jason Fulton gave a real inspiring talk. Not footwear design but the better out of the two I saw. Was a great insight to Nike and how they work. Seemed like a cool guy to work with Yo.
What did they say?! Man, wish I could have gone.
Georgina James was talking about her journey through her career pretty much. How she got into footwear design, how she coped with being made redundant and then landing her dream job at Nike. Not that many examples of work really, only a bit, which wasn’t hers, something with her not being allowed since only being there for four months.
Really enjoyed Jason Fulton’s. He explained how Nike deal with consumers and their culture, surroundings etc. Was really inspiring and gave me new ideas in focusing on users. Played a cool video with people all over Europe talking about their own fashion.
Found it interesting that all 3 of the first speakers (not sure about 4th) were headhunted by Nike randomly out of the blue. Yo, don’t suppose you know how many of the designers at Nike are headhunted and how many apply themselves?
Kinda’ wished I had checked the other two out. But I wanted to get round the exhibition too.
definitely seems like it would have been a great to not only hear people’s individual stories but also some insight into how a company like nike works…and it would not surprise me if nike did in fact headhunt/recruit aggressively, it makes sense that they would seek out people rather than just accepting applications
Yes they do, they seek you out, they have someone there full time, constantly researching, looking for and meeting up with designers. I wouldn’t be surprised if the majority were headhunted. I’d say in my 15 years in the trade I’ve never had to apply for a full time job - they seek you out. It’s not that I’m saying I’m some superstar designer, it’s just that almost everyone gets headhunted once they’ve a few years experience under their belt.
Also, I don’t know if they still do it but they used to leaflet Bread and Butter (European Street Fashion trade show) asking for designers to contact them. I think they even had a recruitment booth there one year. They need good people and good people can be hard to find. It’s not unheard of for even the big sports brands to have vacancies going for months on end coz they haven’t found the right person.
But I think that’s pretty much true of all of the footwear trade. Once you’ve been in the trade a while and you start to get known, you will get constant phonecalls. The hardest thing, as lots of members here know is that it is trciky getting into the trade and getting started.
Shoenista is correct all of her statements, actually there is a team of recruiters that go to shows like Bread and Butter, and the IDSA national, and they go to a bunch of schools every year. It’s a great team (of course I’m partial, they recruited me)…
It is not all head hunting though and they are meticulous about tracking down leads weather through networking, boards like this, internal recommendations, or online applications. When all 4 of those things come together, it is ideal.
Positions are often open for months. A lot of it is timing, it is a big place (over 35o designers) with a lot of divisions, categories and subgroups. It is not just abut raw talent, it is about the right mix of talent, personality, and experience to fit within the individual group that has a need at that time. The requirements often shift pretty radically based on what group is looking… the recruiters have a tough job keeping the pipeline filled a broad mix of people… I’ve been looking for 2 seniors for several months (should be on coroflot soon) but haven’t found that mix of Senior level talent with the right kind of mentoring, easygoing, but visionary, flexible, and willing to travel personality, who also likes BBall but is knowledgeable about lifestyle… then I need 2 of 'em (1 inline, 1 advanced)… tough.