2024 Founder’s Lecture

When: Tuesday, November 5, 2024 from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm (Doors Open at 6:30 pm)
Where: Bata Shoe Museum, 327 Bloor St. W.
Cost: $50/person

Diversifying Design: A Conversation with D’Wayne Edwards

The 1st African American Design Director in Nike’s history, designer of Air Jordan 21 and 22, one of the world’s leading experts on diversity in design, Business of Fashion’s 500 Most Influential People, and founder of the 1st Black owned footwear factory in the United States, we are thrilled to welcome designer, educator, and trailblazer Dr. D’Wayne Edwards as our special guest speaker for the 2024 BSM Founder’s Lecture. Join BSM Director and Senior Curator Elizabeth Semmelhack in conversation with Edwards as they explore the convergence of culture, dress, and society through the lens of sneakers.

Evening Agenda
6:30 pm – Doors open
7:00 pm – Presentation and discussion
8:00 pm – Wine & Hors d’oeuvres reception with the Speaker
9:00 pm – Doors close
Tickets includes wine & hors d’oeuvres during the reception.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

D’Wayne Edwards, with no formal education started his career in 1989, as an entry-level footwear designer for LA Gear at the age of 19. Over the course of his career, which now spans over three-decades, he has received numerous honors and awards from the Red Dot award, three-time Mercedes Benz Fashion award winner, Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business, Business Insider 100 People Transforming Business to President Barack Obama awarding him the President Volunteer of Service Award.

As a designer, Dr. Edwards has accumulated more than 50 patents and designed more than 500 footwear styles for premier entertainers such as Tupac, Notorious B.I.G, Dre, Snoop Dog and Nas. His designs have been worn in six different Olympics, graced all MLB, NFL and NBA stadiums by athletes such as Derek Jeter, Carmelo Anthony and Michael Jordan. In 2010, Edwards began his journey as an educator by establishing the first academy in the U.S. dedicated to footwear design, PENSOLE. PENSOLE has quickly become the preeminent footwear design school in the world by securing partnerships with the industry’s top footwear brands and retailers. PENSOLE has placed more than 700 former alums in positions working professionally for some of today’s top brands: Nike, Adidas, New Balance, Brooks, Vans, Puma, Timberland, The North Face, JORDAN, Zenga, and others globally.

As an educator, Dr. Edwards has taught and lectured at some of the premiere schools in the world from ArtCenter in Pasadena, CA; Parsons in New York; MIT in Boston, MA; Kolding Design School in Kolding Denmark; Harvard in Boston, MA; and a speaker at the Clinton Global Conference. In 2019, ArtCenter College of Design recognized his career as a designer and educator by awarding him an Honorary Doctorate degree making him the 4th person in ArtCenter’s 90-year history to receive this honor.

Dr. Edwards is known as one of the leading experts on diversity in design by his peers. He has created a network of over 600 black and brown designers across all design industries through the creation of an annual conference called the Black Footwear Forum. His work around diversity has led to honors such as the Footwear News Icon award, Footwear News Person of the Year, IDSA Special Achievement Award, Footwear Plus Lifetime Achievement Award and Business of Fashion Global 500 Innovators Award. Today, after such a storied career, D’Wayne has achieved a personal career goal of opening the 1st Black owned footwear factory in the United States called JEMS. Named after a black shoemaking pioneer Jan Ernst Matzeliger this footwear factor will provide young aspiring Black designers an opportunity to create their own brands and see them come to fruition.

The most meaningful work of D’Wayne’s career is becoming the President of Pensole Lewis College of Business and Design(PLC) in Detroit, MI. PLC is the 1st design focused HBCU and the 1st HBCU to reopen. In 2022 PLC was recognized by FastCompany as one of the most innovative design companies in the world.

Dr. Edwards, mission is to leave the industry better than when he entered it and to make the conversation around diversity, no longer a conversation.