Hey friend, welcome to the Mere Christians podcast.

I'm Jordan Raynor.

How does the gospel influence the work of mere Christians?

Those of us who are pastors or religious professionals, but who work as podcasters, pilots, and chemists.

That's the question we explore every week, and today I'm posing it to Wilson Smith.

He just retired as a senior design director at Nike, who led the designs for the Air Jordan brand,

no big deal, and brought shoes to market for the likes of Serena Williams,

Andre Agassi and Roger Federer,

named by Black Enterprise Magazine

as one of the top African-American designers in the United States,

and has been hailed as the design Jackie Robinson

for the role that he has played as the industry's first black sneaker designer.

Wilson and I sat down to talk about how he came to be the first black shoe designer,

how work in general and design work specifically can be a form of prayer.

And we also talked about why Wilson chose Philippians 2-3 to be printed in one of the Nike shoes that he's responsible for designing.

You guys are not going to want to miss this episode with my new friend, Wilson Smith.

Wilson Smith, a legend. Welcome to the Mirro Christian's podcast. Thank you. Thank you so much,

Jordan. I'm honored. I love what you're doing. Thanks, man. Hey, what shoe are you wearing today?

I got to ask, you're a shoe dog. I am a shoe dog, but I'm a shoe dog in my home and I'm wearing my

slippers. What a sad reality, but I did wear early today. What did I wear? I tend to

wear simple slip-ons when I'm not in an important meeting. I'm at home in my home studio.

I am shoeless, but I did bring my newest pair of custom Nikes. So I'm the cheapest person in the world but every time i release a new

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