The next generation of shoe designers aren’t wasting any time jumpstarting their careers, thanks to entrepreneurs Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, who are bringing their creative expertise to Southern California high schools through a partnership with Adidas and Pensole.
Last fall, the Beats co-founders organized a series of “Wood U’ workshops through the Iovine and Young Academy – an educational startup that the pair started at University of Southern California in 2013 – where students from Inglewood were able to design their own sneakers all the way up through production. Through the six-week long course, other creatives such as the West Coast rapper D Smoke dropped in to offer their support and guidance.
The finished products, which will be available in select Adidas stores on February 7, were unveiled last weekend at an outdoor pep rally at Audobon Middle School, where Pensole founder Dr. D'Wayne Edwards took the stage to explain the creative process and his own mission to inspire young children to pursue a career in design.
"Having fewer than 5% African Americans in the overall profession of design is disgusting, given the economic power we have as consumers," Edwards says Variety. "And it's hypocritical for us not to be in the corporations developing the products that we want to buy, since our business promotes black people in advertisements telling these youngsters that they can be successful but only if they have a ball or a microphone in their hands." These kids have grown up believing that it is the only way they can be successful, therefore I believe that showing them that there are other alternatives is the most important element."
It was no surprise that we catered to Inglewood students in particular. Edwards went to Inglewood High School before becoming a trailblazing designer for brands like Nike and Jordan, and, of course, eventually founded his own footwear design institute with Pensole. It's also one of the reasons D Smoke, who appears in the "Wood U" campaign film and played at the pep rally, got involved. The Grammy-nominated rapper talked on stage about his mother, who attended Audobon Middle School, and how her experiences shed light on the need of developing chances for underprivileged areas in South L.A.
The seminars, however, are simply the beginning of a long-term plan devised by Iovine and Dr. Dre. The power couple is partnering with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to construct a new high school in September 2022, which will be located on the same property as Audobon Middle School and will have 120 available spaces for ninth and tenth students interested in design, business, and technology. Students will be able to obtain hands-on experience through an unique curriculum focusing on the creative sectors they will meet in the real world, similar to the Iovine and Young Academy. This time, though, Iovine and Dr. Dre are teaching aspiring entrepreneurs as early as high school, with tentative plans to expand the curriculum to middle kids.
