Ted Audio Collective

Here I am, I'm 24 years old and I'm designing shoes for these guys who are younger than me

by the name of Tupac, by the name of notorious BIG and Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg and Puffy

and not knowing that these would become hip-hop royalty.

From the Ted Audio Collective this is Design Matters with Debbie Millman.

For 18 years Debbie Millman has been talking with designers and other creative people about what they do,

how they got to be, who they are and what they're thinking about and working on.

On this episode, shoe designer Dwayne Edwards talks about how competition helped his craft.

Okay, I'm going to be next to the best. I mean, where do I stack up in that equation?

It's not every kid who says to themselves, when I grow up, I'm going to be a footwear designer.

Well, Dwayne Edwards did. At 19 years old he became the youngest professional footwear designer in the industry.

More than 30 years later, he's an award-winning, celebrated designer who has created over 500 styles of sneakers

for the likes of Derek Cheter and Michael Jordan.

He's worked for many of the biggest brands including Nike.

Now Dwayne Edwards is also an educator. In 2010 he founded Pensoil, the first academy in the country

specifically focused on the design of footwear and now runs the HBCU pencil Lewis College of Design and Business in Detroit, Michigan.

Dwayne Edwards, welcome to Design Matters.

Thank you very much. I'm very excited to be here and looking forward to the conversation.

Thank you, me too. I want to ask, is it true that you are from two cities of champions?

I am. Believe it or not, two cities from the city of champions twice, 2,200 miles apart from each other.

One born in Joliet, Illinois, and then raised in Inglewood, California, both are city of champions.

Your mom moved you and your five siblings by herself. From Illinois to California, she moved you to Englewood when you were three months old.

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