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Senior Design Director Footwear
Manhattan Beach, CA
Oct 2018 - Present (2 years 11 months)
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Co-Founder
Manhattan Beach, CA
Feb 2003 - Present (18 years 1 month)
New Level Design was founded in Brazil (2003) and is known today as the Tobin Dorn Design Studio.
Founder | Creative director
Sport designs including footwear and sportswear concept sketching, technical packages, full design & project management, art direction, story telling implementation into marketing strategies, seasonal color/material expectations, technology platforms specific to the consumer needs and ideas for brand comm briefings.
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Footwear VP, Creative Director
Fila China
Xiamen Shi, China
Mar 2017 - Sep 2018 (1 year 6 months)
- Presents to key stake holders, Fila Global, CEO, Chairmen and Marketing VPs at sales meetings, pre-line meetings and sample meetings.
- Leads cad, concept and design reviews inviting designers, developers, merchandisers, sales reps and marketing teams.
- Creative direction and footwear designs given to the FILA Lab APS team that created more engaging experiences.
- Presents seasonal trends and creative direction to product teams.
- Manages outsourced freelance footwear designers creating briefings and key styles to adapt and integrate into market strategy.
-Business trip leader for sample shopping, international fairs, and inspirational trips for R&D teams.
- Manages and motivate 3D designers sharing know-how of functionality in sportswear design.
- Gives final product approvals for brand ambassador and partner collaboration footwear projects such as FILA x Staple, Aape, Chen Kun, Roy Wang, D-Antidote and the Milan Fashion Week footwear collections 2018.
- Collaborates, influences and inspires key business partners and team members for global footwear styles.
- Excellent communicator to all levels of the organization with strong communication skills, written and verbal.
- Accompanies R&D teams to resolve product issues from commercialization to tech packs for Performance, Lifestyle and Fusion categories.
- Identifies opportunities, new business drivers and creative solutions as well as footwear designs for mid-term and long term design strategies that included FUSION footwear collections, store display concepts and Olympics footwear innovations 2020 & 2022.
- Designed FILA x Milan Fashion Week SS19 footwear collection.
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Design Director
Fila Brazil
Brazil
Apr 2013 - Feb 2017 (3 years 10 months)
Performance Footwear Divisions - Running | Tennis | XT
- Expanded the visual/design language of FILA, both identity and footwear products, by designing the look and feel of product in new and refreshing directions.
- Drew out the team’s creativity and encouraged them to consistently (and as a key part of the work) bring product ideas/concepts to the table during design reviews.
- Built an environment and reputation that attracted creative people.
- Held designers to the highest standards for sketches, design, layout, and innovation. Challenged and pushed them to grow and stretch their range.
- Provided technical guidance to team members and freelance contributors.
- Key presentations to the CEO, President, FILA Intl., SVP of brand development, and sales staff.
- Led the invention of new footwear technologies to surprise and engage the customers as design leader.
- Oversaw quality-control checks and reviewed all work produced by the development team at the key stages (initial design concepts, first pull overs, first test samples, tech packs), and ensured that design and production were capable of and responsible for detailed review of samples and tech projects.
- Established strong Running, Tennis and X-training franchises for the FILA brand with innovative and high performance functional footwear designs, global creative direction and key marketing stories for the Kenya Racer 3, Kenya Trainer 1, FXT collections, and the Cage Delirium.
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Design Consultant | Freelance
UFC
São Paulo, Brazil
2012 - 2013 (1 year)
Designed Official UFC x Reebok MMA uniforms.
Presented apparel collections for the Combat Sports category that included trend research, market analysis, athlete feedback, design direction, design management, art direction, integrated marketing concepts, packaging design, story telling, graphic design and overall seasonal narrative for on court and off court.
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Senior Footwear Designer
DASS Group
Brazil
2003 - 2010 (7 years)
Created vision and design direction for four distinct brands, UMBRO, FILA, KAPPA and TRYON.
- Footwear design/ideation from initial concepts/stories to final prototypes.
- Footwear technology exploration, ideation and creation for Umbro’s footwear technologies SC3, Centipax and Octopax.
- Strategic design helped TryOn as they looked to revolutionize their business by creating a category-specific branding campaign.
- KENYA Performance running platform story telling, design, technology ideation, art direction.
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Footwear Design Consultant
Alpargatas
São Paulo, Brazil
2006 - 2008 (2 years)
Created vision and design direction for three distinct brands, MIZUNO, TOPPER and RAINHA. Footwear design/ideation from initial concepts/stories to final prototypes.
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Footwear Design Consultant
Puma AG
München, Germany
2002 - 2003 (1 year)
Performance Running
As senior designer (Creation&Focus Studio) I managed a team of 5 junior/senior PUMA designers while creating footwear models for the COMPLETE performance running series.
- Deep involvement in research and concept development through sketch and 3D modeling, then worked alongside engineers to see products through to manufacturing at overseas factories.
- Assisted with sales presentations and concept renderings for the women's track suit concept worn by the Jamaican Olympic relay team, 'Sport Toga', 2004.
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Footwear Senior Designer
Puma North America
New York, NY
1997 - 2001 (4 years)
As the New York footwear design lead my responsibilities included design and co-developing technical products for aggressive timelines.
- Designed a wide variety of key styles which have gone on to achieve success as technical products in the marketplace. Managed projects through all phases of design cycle including: brainstorm sessions, initial concept sketches, presentation renderings, supervising prototypes, guiding design through engineering phases and presenting to clients.
- Set aesthetic direction for design team.
- Designed the 360 degree basketball apparel/footwear collection, 'The Cage', with Ciano Farmer that aired on 60 Minutes, 2000.
- Designed innovative boot concepts for Cyclops, Storm and Wolverine for the film ‘X-MEN 1’, a joint venture with New Regency Productions.
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Footwear Designer
Fila North America
New York, NY
1995 - 1997 (2 years)
Worked closely with Fila athlete, Derek Jeter, NY Yankees, to develop x-training footwear that met his needs.
- Finalized tech packages and proactively followed the execution of all product details with strong creative multi- tasking skills, including construction, color, form, style, detail and fit performance with overseas factories.
