How I became a Nike designer
Chen, Schoolmeester use passion, curiosity to create Nike Flyprint
Q&A on duo’s biggest lessons, successes.
Our series “How I became a …” digs into the stories of accomplished and influential people, finding out how they got to where they are in their careers.
How often do we put on a pair of tennis shoes and think deeply about the way they are constructed and designed? For Roger Chen and Bret Schoolmeester, that question provides the framework for their jobs.
Chen, senior director of advanced design and NXT innovation, and Schoolmeester, senior director for Nike’s global running footwear, worked together on Nike’s latest innovating project: the new Nike Flyprint, a 3D-printed performance shoe. They watched their project cross the finish line this month when Kenyan runner Eliud Kipchoge won the London Marathon … in a pair of Flyprint shoes.
USA TODAY caught up with Chen and Schoolmeester to discuss everything from mentors to innovation to, well, running.
Editor’s note: This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
Question: Who has been your biggest mentor? Roger: Within Nike, my early managers Tim Pacholke and Rob Barnette. They both taught me different ways of listening, leading and how to collaborate and partner up with others over the years. Outside of work, my biggest inspiration would be Bob Dylan — I was an aspiring songwriter and musician and always wanted to be the next — well, the first — Asian Bob Dylan.
Bret: Within Nike, I’ve taken a lot of learning from Phil McCartney, who was the head of running footwear my first years, and is now the head of all footwear. Outside of Nike, my college coach, Mark Wetmore, taught me more about just how to think and to solve problems and address issues and also just taught me a lot about running overall.
Q: What does a typical day of work look like? Roger: What I love about Nike is just coming in to work with the people, and what makes Nike such a unique place is that we have so many experts in different fields. We have sports scientists, industrial designers, architects, technologists, creatives, marketing people that come together to bring a project to life.
Bret: I honestly think I’ve got the greatest job in the world, because my job really is to present problems to solve to experts. It’s everything from going to meetings to kicking projects off, check in on product status, solve problems within the problems. We set out a project, describing a finish line we want to get to, but it’s rarely a straight line from start to finish, and that’s really what makes it so fun.
Q: What does your career path look like?
Roger: I grew up in Hillsboro, Ore., which is the backyard of Nike headquarters. I grew up as a product tester, so I’ve worn Nikes pretty much my entire life. I actually never thought about working at Nike, and what I’ve loved throughout my career is learning different disciplines — so my background is in both design and technology, and I bounced between the two fields for a while. Coming to Nike I was able to blend both of those worlds together.
Bret: I was an athlete in college, ran at the University of Colorado, and worked retail. I worked at this great store called Boulder Running Company selling running shoes. My passion for running and products was really high. Right after college I moved to Oregon to run for the Nike Oregon Project — I did that for about 12 months before they realized that I was not that good, and it served this role in getting me on the campus.
It’s been about four years now since I was approached with an opportunity in running footwear innovation — we wanted to get a little bit of a new approach, a new thought process to somebody who may- be hadn’t grown up in footwear, and it was too good to pass up.
Q: What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned in your career?
Roger: Self-awareness. Oftentimes when you’re coming out of school, you’re really taught the hard skill, the technical skill; business, art, mind, technology. You’ve really learned the technical skills for the craft that you’re going into. I think over time it’s really the soft skills that are going to guide your career and really take you places. To do that though, you really need self-awareness — to really reflect on your strengths and weaknesses.
Bret: I think this is sometimes a cliché, but I really do think it’s true — not being afraid to fail. I really have failed miserably at times, but being able to have the support of leaders of Nike to be OK with that — to kind of embrace it, learn from it, be honest about it.
Q: What advice would you give someone who wants to follow in your footsteps?
Roger: Passion and humility — I think when you’re coming out of school you really think you know it all, or at least I did, and I think even through your career as you change jobs and change companies, you come in trying to prove yourself. I think coming up you’ve really got to understand that people around you have been doing what they’re doing for a long time and are experts in their field.
Bret: Follow your passion. When I showed up here, the only thing I knew about races was how to run them and actually compete in them. The only thing I knew about shoes was really how to put them on and go for a run. Because I was passionate and curious, I’ve been able to learn things and figure out things I never thought I would be able to understand.