Descente Innovation
Footwear Innovation
D.I.S.C
Innovation | Design Direction | Concept Development | Footwear Design | Mentoring
In 2020 I was invited to work at Descente Korea’s brand-new footwear innovation facility in Busan.
My role as Senior Innovation Designer was to lead innovation programmes within cross functional teams, implement hand-over frameworks for in-line business units. and mentor a highly talented young design team.
My time in Busan was amazing from a personal and professional perspecive, I also gained an insight in how other cultures and teams, rightfully or wrongly approach innovation in the perfomance product industry.
DOCC PROJECT
Possibly the most challenging project of my career to date (for many reasons).
The project was almost complete when I arrived at Descente Innovation - I designed the upper for the prototype, pushing their conventional construction methods, and ensuring a harmonious flow with the bottom. I also defined the design hand-over pack for inline. The concept was commercially released in 2023 as the ‘Dome X9’.
DOCC LP
In parallel, I had the opportunity to lead a more performance-led, low profile version of the concept.
An extremely difficult task - I wanted to use my innovation experience to try and solve the functional and aesthetic problems that were hugely apparent to me in the first version.
