Expert Designer, Men's Sportswear Footwear Material Design

NIKE, Inc. designs the future. At NIKE, Inc. designers chase their curiosities and build what’s next, shaping the culture and advancing human potential. The Design teams include artists, inventors and specialists, all with different focuses, including color and material experts, and apparel, footwear and graphic designers. Nike designers look to the future, aggressively pursuing materials, ideas and forms that further elevate the athlete experience, raise the bar for modern style and reduce environmental impact.

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

We’re looking for an exceptional Footwear Materials Designer to combine their experience, problem solving abilities, and creativity to help create the future of Nike Footwear Materials. The category you will be working in is the Mens Sportswear Classics Expression Footwear team.

The ideal candidate needs to be a highly creative problem solver, who doesn’t settle for anything less than the best design and materials solutions, to meet the needs of the consumer on and off the court. This person will be focused on elevating the consumer experience by creating materials that are performance and trend-relevant for a range of products, while driving an emotional connection to materials for the consumer using narrative and storytelling as well as pushing the edges of sustainable footwear material design.  

WHAT YOU WILL WORK ON

If this is you, you will be creating concepts and new material designs on a range of products for Nike’s most iconic models. You will work on elevating new technologies that influence brand new models, and seasonal narratives.

Your goal will be to aim for product excellence by partnering with key stakeholders cross-functionally on the product creation process and help bring the vision for the future of Nike’s products to life. 

You will unleash creativity with a focus on sustainability, leveraging consumer insights to inform our creative response. Your focus will help drive innovation and embed cultural connections into our designs to create separation from our competition. The daily responsibilities of this role are wide ranging, ambitious, and exciting!

WHO YOU WILL WORK WITH

As an expert footwear material designer, you will be working hand in hand with a large project team of different professionals (engineers, researchers, scientists, marketing, product testing, sustainability, materials development, costing, etc.), collaborate within the design community (industrial designers, materials, color, graphics, computational, etc.), and mentor other designers. This role will not have direct report(s). 

This role reports directly to the Senior Manager Mens Sportswear Classics Expression Footwear.

WHAT YOU BRING

Bachelor's Degree in Textiles, Materials, Graphics, or other relevant design field or a combination of relevant education, experience, and training.

• 8+ years’ experience designing and developing innovative footwear and other products
• Creates/sets design direction and material toolbox for silo or product collection within a dimension 
• Ability to translate consumer knowledge and insights into product solutions and narratives
• Experience building inspiration/concept presentations, and mood boards for seasonal concepts and direction
• Experience building 3D samples and crafting mockup samples by hand
• Ability to present new insights or seasonal concepts to small and large groups
• Highly organized and self-sufficient
• Experience working and communicating directly with manufacturing partners to ensure the accuracy of intent and Materials executions
• Ability to build and edit files using Adobe programs including Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign
• Ability in participating in multiple seasonal projects with challenging resources and deadlines
• Understanding of the Footwear Product Creation process, a plus.
• Passion for Design.
• High interest in sneaker culture

We offer a number of accommodations to complete our interview process including screen readers, sign language interpreters, accessible and single location for in-person interviews, closed captioning, and other reasonable modifications as needed. If you discover, as you navigate our application process, that you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, please complete the Candidate Accommodation Request Form.