Home
Entrar
Cadastrar
The Creative Genius of Sneaker Design | Salehe Bembury and Cloe Shasha Brooks | TED - Video học tiếng Anh
Prática de escuta
Prática de escuta
/
Video
/
TED Talk
/
The Creative Genius of Sneaker Design | Salehe Bembury and Cloe Shasha Brooks | TED
The Creative Genius of Sneaker Design | Salehe Bembury and Cloe Shasha Brooks | TED
Selecione o modo de aprendizagem:
Ver legendas
Escolher palavra
Reescrever palavra
Highlight:
3000 Oxford Words
4000 IELTS Words
5000 Oxford Words
3000 Common Words
1000 TOEIC Words
5000 TOEFL Words
Legendas (323)
0:04
Cloe Shasha Brooks: Salehe, thank you so much for joining us.
0:07
Salehe Bembury: Thanks for having me.
0:09
CSB: Among many of your popular designs, you made Crocs cool.
0:12
And this is called the Crocs Pollex clog,
0:17
based on your own fingerprint mold.
0:18
And what I love is that Crocs reach out to you
0:21
asking if they could send you some shoes.
0:23
And you said, "How about we actually collaborate instead?"
0:26
And they said yes.
0:27
So once they said yes, how did you decide to do this specifically?
0:30
SB: It was a great honor because they first wanted to collaborate.
0:33
And then when I sent them what I didn’t know was a kid’s Croc shoe,
0:37
they let me know that they loved
0:39
that I was thinking of the form of the Croc,
0:41
which a lot of collaborators in the past were simply reskinning the Croc,
0:45
maybe adding jibbitz.
0:46
And I was thinking of the form,
0:47
and that comes from my industrial-design background.
0:50
Once they saw that I was interested in manipulating the form,
0:53
they asked me if I wanted to be the first collaborative designer
0:56
to create a Croc from scratch,
0:58
which I immediately did a Birdman hand rub and said yes.
1:02
(Laughter)
1:03
And so this is the result of that.
1:06
Initially I had to make sure that I fostered and maintained
1:09
the existing elements of the Croc DNA
1:12
and made sure that I didn't scare away the existing consumer
1:15
and getting the honor of working with a brand like Crocs,
1:18
you get to work with their heritage and their DNA.
1:20
So I had to make sure to maintain that
1:22
and then also introduce my own brand identity,
1:25
put it through a new lens,
1:26
and potentially speak to a new audience.
1:29
CSB: You know, it's pretty amazing
1:30
because you've had a really amazing journey as a footwear designer.
1:33
You started at Payless in 2009,
1:35
and then you started doing collaborations with a lot of brands
1:38
like New Balance, Cole Haan, Versace, to name a few.
1:42
And now you run your own brand called Spunge,
1:44
that's what those are.
1:45
So to help paint the picture of how you've forged your own path,
1:48
I'd love for you to share the story that I just love,
1:51
of you being on your couch,
1:52
eating cereal in a moment of unemployment
1:55
and you somehow went from scrolling on LinkedIn
1:58
to convincing Versace to give you your dream job.
2:00
Will you tell us that story?
2:02
SB: So, cereal on my couch,
2:03
that is a description of the image of unemployment
2:06
that I was experiencing at that time.
2:08
I was using all of the tools that have been given to us for outreach,
2:12
LinkedIn, Craigslist,
2:15
maybe it was even Facebook at the time,
2:17
and sending messages to whoever would accept them.
2:20
I reached out to a Versace design director,
2:22
and I proposed an opportunity.
2:23
I said, the sneaker industry is a multibillion-dollar business,
2:26
and traditionally, that consumer isn't paying attention to fashion brands
2:29
or traditionally paying attention to the sneaker brands
2:32
that we're all used to and probably wearing right now.
2:35
But then there was this mass education that happened
2:37
that Raf Simons, Adidas, Nike, Comme des Garçons,
2:39
and now this massive consumer was aware of the fact
2:42
that fashion houses can make sneakers.
2:44
And so I reached out to them,
2:45
a few days later, Donatella herself responded.
2:48
She said she loved my ideas.
2:51
Perfect timing for that photo.
2:53
She said that she wanted me to come out to Milan
2:56
and present to her what I thought the sneaker program could be.
3:00
I went out to Milan a few days later,
3:02
presented a combination of merchandising and design and sales insight,
3:07
and she loved it.
3:08
And she was like, "I want to hire you.
3:10
I want you to move to Milan right away.
3:12
Do you want to consult?"
3:13
She was really open about what the opportunity could be.
3:15
Because she was so open,
3:17
I asked if I could have my own design studio in Los Angeles
3:20
and travel to Milan monthly for factory visits and shows
3:22
and she said yes.
3:23
So I went outside and did my pursuit of happiness --
3:26
cry in the streets --
3:28
because my life changed instantly.
3:30
But really what that was more about was the power of asking
3:33
and what that can bring you.
3:35
(Applause)
3:40
CSB: So throughout your career,
3:42
you've always used color and form and function
3:45
in a way that's felt really playful.
3:47
There's so many nuanced details in your designs,
3:49
like there's so many Easter eggs that people could find
3:52
if they know what to look for.
3:53
So I'm going to show some pictures of your shoes,
3:56
and I'd love to hear you share your design philosophy for each of them.
3:59
Tell us about these.
4:01
SB: So this was my first-ever collaboration
4:03
with a Chinese brand called Anta.
4:05
This was a from-scratch collaboration.
4:08
A lot of collaborations these days are color-ups and skinings,
4:11
but this was, I guess the result of a white piece of paper.
4:14
And I guess what I was trying to accomplish here
4:17
was an introduction to footwear,
4:20
the footwear industry and the audience --
4:22
because before that I was working at different brands,
4:24
and this was the first time that a piece of footwear
4:27
was going to feature my name.
4:28
So there was a lot of things that I had to introduce to my existing audience.
4:32
CSB: How about this one?
4:33
SB: This is the HALI 1.
4:34
It's the first signature sneaker of Tyrese Haliburton.
4:37
I became a footwear designer because of basketball.
4:40
That was my kind of initial inspiration that made me feel the emotions
4:43
that I believe I'm giving to others now.
4:45
It is with Puma.
4:47
He recently wore it in the previous NBA finals.
4:51
It had a pretty tragic ending,
4:53
but it was still amazing to be a part of that shoe
4:58
and for it to fall at that part of my career was really special.
5:02
CSB: I love these.
5:03
SB: This was a shoe I did with Pyer Moss,
5:05
which is a high-fashion brand.
5:07
The creative director reached out to me, and he asked me to create a shoe
5:11
that represented the feeling of being financially stuck.
5:14
I knew that I couldn't use concrete,
5:16
so then I quickly thought of using silicone as the solution.
5:20
And that's what I made.
5:21
CSB: And that was in a runway show, right?
5:23
SB: Yes, this was in like a SW ’16 runway show, or SS.
5:28
CSB: How about these?
5:29
SB: These are a bunch of images from my Moncler Genius collaboration.
5:33
This was my first ready-to-wear collection.
5:35
And as of late, a lot of my work has been described as like world-building.
5:39
And this was that in real form,
5:41
because I got to create a full installation
5:43
that helped further tell the story of the ready-to-wear collection
5:47
and featured footwear, accessories,
5:49
and there were some pretty big billboards as well,
5:52
which I hadn't experienced thus far in my career.
5:54
CSB: And when you did this ready-to-wear collection,
5:57
how did you go from just doing footwear to clothing?
6:00
Like, how did you think about that?
6:01
SB: I think one of the most difficult things
6:03
for an independent designer is creating your signature language.
6:07
Like, what is that signature identity
6:09
that someone can recognize without even seeing a logo?
6:12
So once I kind of established that, I think it now makes it easy
6:16
to bring that across different categories of product.
6:20
CSB: And then this video is just so charming.
6:23
SB: That is Thundercat, that's Steven.
6:26
That was for a New Balance project called "Sand be the Time."
6:30
A lot of the projects are influenced by experiences.
6:32
So this was from a trip --
6:35
Where was that?
6:36
That was the pink sand dunes in Utah.
6:38
And that basically was the foundation of the story for that shoe.
6:42
So the average person looking at that shoe might see a pink shoe.
6:45
But then with the story of the pink sand dunes
6:48
and relating the execution of the chenille into the colors of the sunset.
6:54
Now you’ve cultivated a community,
6:55
you’ve invited people to come into your world
6:57
and you've told a story.
6:59
CSB: You got really into hiking in nature.
7:01
You started designing outdoor shoes and gear,
7:03
and in one instance you translated Arizona's Antelope Canyon
7:06
into a shoe called Peace Be the Journey, which came out in 2020.
7:10
And that shoe, even though it came out six years ago,
7:12
is still so popular that it's being sold for markup
7:16
on resale sites like eBay like, to this day,
7:19
consistently, for a lot of money.
7:21
So tell us why you think this shoe is still so popular.
7:25
SB: Potentially that I told a story that people could resonate with,
7:28
this was influenced by a trip to Antelope Canyon,
7:31
a beautiful place, for those that haven't been.
7:34
And ultimately the goal was to make this shoe represent that experience.
7:38
So if you're looking at that shoe, it's an orange shoe.
7:41
But then when I tie the orange to the tones of Antelope Canyon
7:44
and the blue of the N represents the sky,
7:46
and the maroons represent the tones in the sunset.
7:50
And then the campaign tells that story further.
7:54
Now when people wear that shoe,
7:55
sure, it may be a shoe that they think looks cool,
7:58
but then they now feel like they're a part of a community.
8:01
I remember when I first started traveling to China for work,
8:03
I would always look for people wearing Supreme
8:06
because I assumed that there was a higher likelihood
8:08
that they spoke English.
8:09
So sometimes there are visual cues that signify a community.
8:12
CSB: It's so cool.
8:14
So staying on that New Balance theme,
8:15
you designed the New Balance 574 Yurt shoe,
8:19
with a whistle on the heel.
8:20
SB: Yes.
8:22
CSB: So most designers would never think of that.
8:24
I'm going to share this with all of you so you can see what I'm talking about.
8:32
(Whistling)
8:33
(Laughter)
8:39
(Laughter)
8:40
CSB: So how'd you think of that?
8:43
SB: So New Balance tasked me
8:44
with the opportunity of creating a shoe from scratch.
8:48
Around this time, my buddy Samuel Ross,
8:51
who's a designer based out of London,
8:52
had this Nike shoe called the “Zoom Vomero,”
8:55
and it featured a molded plastic piece on the back of the shoe.
8:58
And I'd wear them a lot.
8:59
And people would always ask me, what does that molded piece do?
9:02
And I would respond, nothing at all.
9:04
And people seemed to still accept it.
9:06
And I found that really fascinating
9:08
because it was a very unused area of real estate of the shoe.
9:10
And so I thought to myself, what if this area of real estate
9:13
could be used for something functional?
9:15
Obviously, if that functional thing was filled with technology,
9:18
now you’re looking at a $2,000 shoe,
9:20
so that wasn't an option.
9:21
Then I thought of how I could manipulate plastic to function.
9:24
That became a whistle.
9:26
Truthfully, I created the whistle without thinking of the why,
9:29
the purpose,
9:30
I just thought a whistle was cool.
9:33
And then, for the prototype, I glued a whistle into a New Balance shoe,
9:37
and I met with the team and I told them a whole story
9:39
of think about camping with your friends,
9:42
and it's almost dusk
9:43
and you stop to take a picture of some deer
9:46
and your friends walk ahead.
9:47
And now you've lost them.
9:49
And then I grabbed a shoe from beneath the table,
9:52
blew the whistle and then they all slow-clapped.
9:55
(Laughter)
9:56
And so again, that was
10:00
maybe a little bit of my industrial design background, you know,
10:03
trying to figure out how to find utility
10:05
within maybe something that doesn't have as much.
10:07
But then more importantly,
10:09
I think it's kind of cool to just do something first in footwear,
10:12
there's never been a whistle on a shoe.
10:14
And if you were to think about how much energy it would take
10:17
for you to scream if you broke your ankle on a hike alone,
10:20
compared to the amount of energy that would just simply take you
10:23
to blow a whistle.
10:24
So, you know, giving the consumer a tool seemed like a good opportunity.
10:27
CSB: You know, one thing I've heard you say before
10:30
is that genius can be created in seconds and crap can be created over months.
10:34
SB: Yeah.
10:35
CSB: I think that's such a great line.
10:37
SB: That's why you never charge hourly.
10:39
CSB: That is so true.
10:41
So know, anyone who hires consultants.
10:44
So how does someone optimize their life
10:46
so that they can avoid creating crap over long amounts of time?
10:50
SB: Maybe avoid distraction.
10:51
I've always found that when trying to create,
10:55
not getting too distracted by the thing that we all have
10:58
in our pockets right now
11:00
and constantly scrolling other people's ideas,
11:03
social media, the internet, Instagram, it's a great sense of inspiration,
11:06
but it can also create a massive cloud of distraction
11:09
that makes you lose sight of your own vision.
11:13
And so I think finding that balance between the work
11:16
and avoiding distraction is important.
11:19
CSB: Yeah.
11:21
You know, one thing that you're known for,
11:23
beyond your shoes,
11:24
is speaking about those Easter-egg details in your work,
11:27
is the boxes
11:28
that you actually design for the shoes, the shoe boxes.
11:31
And so any sneakerhead I've spoken to is like, oh, Salehe's boxes,
11:35
like, "I love collecting his shoes because they stack so beautifully."
11:39
So like, how much time do you spend thinking about how the shoe will look
11:43
on the foot versus in the box?
11:45
SB: Well, I just think I often go back to, you know,
11:49
I'm pretty experienced in footwear design,
11:51
but I have my master's in footwear consumerism.
11:54
So I just think of those moments that resonated with me
11:57
and that made me feel cool
11:58
or more athletic or magical.
12:01
And so I'm really just trying to recreate those moments.
12:04
I really think it's important to take advantage
12:06
of every area of real estate of a product,
12:08
because as creatives, all we have is that reveal moment, right?
12:11
So when we reveal that product, how does it make the audience feel?
12:16
Do they like it immediately?
12:17
Do they not like it immediately?
12:19
And then they see it over and over again, and then they start to like it.
12:22
I love that relationship with product
12:24
because it’s almost like “Steve Jobsian,” if that’s the term.
12:29
Because, you know, he said
12:30
the consumer doesn't know what they want until you show it to them.
12:34
So the Crocs Pollex being an example.
12:35
Like, there are a lot of people that that shoe upset at first
12:38
and then slowly seeing them come around to both that product specifically,
12:42
or even the brand of Crocs was really cool to witness
12:45
because you almost were like, changing minds with product.
12:50
CSB: So this passion of yours runs deep.
12:52
When you were nine years old,
12:54
you made this --
12:57
Air Jordan 11 out of clay.
12:59
And I would love to know,
13:01
do you still feel like the nine-year-old version of yourself
13:04
when you do your work today?
13:06
SB: Absolutely.
13:07
I mean, if you love what you do, it's not a job.
13:09
This is pretty much what I've wanted to do my entire life.
13:12
So there’s a certain level of freedom.
13:15
There's a certain level of nostalgia that exists within my work.
13:18
To quote Kanye West in one interview,
13:21
he was saying that he felt like he was creating most freely
13:24
when he felt like he was three years old.
13:26
And that was a time in our lives
13:27
when we didn’t have many boundaries or restrictions.
13:30
And our creative output was exactly how we wanted it to be.
13:33
And now we potentially have employers or market rules
13:37
or trends that we need to follow.
13:39
And then those are all ultimately like guardrails
13:41
that prevent true creative freedom.
13:43
So everything’s about balance at the end of the day,
13:47
but I still try to maintain that freedom as much as possible.
13:50
CSB: Awesome.
13:51
Well, thank you so much, Salehe.
13:52
SB: Thanks for having me.
13:54
(Applause)
