Shoeting for the stars

D’Wayne Edwards is a designer for NIKE and the man behind the famous sports shoes Air Jordan, worn by NBA star Michael Jordan.

D’Wayne Edwards comes to Kolding to teach a group of students from Fashion & Textiles and Industrial Design, and when the four weeks have passed, the students will have designed a new shoe collection.

Head of Textiles at Design School Kolding, Helle Graabæk, characterises it as a bit of a scoop that the American shoe designer wants to spend four weeks teaching Danish design students.

- It’s simply fantastic. We hoped he would be here for two weeks but he wanted to stay for the duration of the project, which is really wonderful for us, says Helle Graabæk.

Improved drawing skills
The course is part of the three-year partnership agreement between ECCO and Design School Kolding based on ECCO’s desire to recruit local designers.

- D’Wayne Edward’s design school is called ’Pensole’, which refers to ’pencil’ and ’sole’, and I think it’s safe to say that the pencil is his God. He puts great emphasis on drawing because a special language emerges when the brain has to use a tool. This is perfectly in tune with Design School Kolding’s and ECCO’s ambition to improve the students’ drawing skills, says Helle Graabæk.

The course includes a masterclass for fifth-year students and two drawing workshops which everyone can join. On 25 November the school opens a new leather workshop and ECCO will be in the house to do a midterm evaluation of the project.

About D’Wayne Edwards

• He is founder and director of ’Pensole’ in Portland, USA
• At 17 he won a Reebok design competition when he drew a new version of the Air Jordan 2
• In 2000 he became lead designer at NIKE
• He has drawn more than 500 shoes: athletic, casual, outdoor and dress.
• In 2008 his shoes won two Olympic medals
• He has taken out 30 patents