The 2010 Future Sole design competition has officially kicked off and is taking registrations right now. This year’s event features eligibility for an expanded age range (14-25 years old) and an added competition to design a Jordan Brand t-shirt graphic. Footwear design participants in both Nike and Jordan categories will contend for $5,000 in computer equipment with high school student winners receiving a bonus $5,000 grant for their school and college students garnering an extra $500 Nike gift card. Official Future Sole registration and submission deadline is July 1st. Visit Future Sole for complete information and details.

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A portfolio competition for a summer footwear design fellowship at the University of Oregon is taking place right now at Mesh01.com. The competition is open to students worldwide and ends on May 21st. Check out the site right now for more details on the program. We’ll keep you posted on any new developments.

Tony Hardman was part of our original judging team for the Project Bluefoot x Air Jordan Design Competition. His unconventional route into the footwear industry took him from working retail to freelancing at Jordan Brand and eventually working at Skechers. And now? Say hello to your newest Nike Employee, Tony Hardman…

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Matt DeAlmeida provides us with his first-hand narrative in our exclusive Nike Future Sole Experience series covering his Swoosh chartered plane trip up to Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, OR for the annual Nike-sponsored footwear design competition for high school students. Continue reading for DeAlmeida’s complete Future Sole recap, including exclusive concept sketches of his winning leaf-inspired Nike design.

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Next up in our exclusive Nike Future Sole Experience series is a first-hand account by finalist Ethan Dean on what it was like making the trip up to Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, OR for the annual Nike-sponsored footwear design competition run by D’Wayne Edwards, Design Director at Jordan Brand. Continue reading for Dean’s complete Future Sole recap, including exclusive concept sketches and renderings of his re-worked Nike Hyperflight design.

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Project Bluefoot has exclusively invited all four Nike Future Sole 2009 Finalists to share their first-hand experience on the annual Nike-sponsored design competition and trip up to Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, OR. Today, our series launches with 2009 Future Sole Finalist: Daniel Gold. Continue reading for Gold’s complete Future Sole recap, including exclusive rendering images of his Melo M6 re-design.

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Project Bluefoot has teamed up exclusively with Counter Kicks.com to present our Lifestyle LeBron James concept shoes. Each designer will essentially “takeover” the Counter Kicks shoe silhouette logo with their Lifestyle LeBron product and have their complete design work and backstory showcased on the site over the next couple weeks. Then, come back here and we’ll provide a full recap at the end. You can view our initial posted concept here. Next on tap is our main event: LeBron James Basketball Concepts with judges Jason Petrie and Ken Link coming soon.

The Project Bluefoot x Air Jordan Design Competition is now complete. Our 2 guest judges – Jason Mayden (Senior Designer at Jordan Brand) and D’Wayne Edwards (Design Director at Jordan Brand) – graciously lent us their design eyes and ears over the past few months to review and critique our debut Project Bluefoot Footwear Design Competition highlighting an Air Jordan theme challenge. A mass came to play. Many challenged. One won. To get the official inside scoop on the finalist concepts and our Air Jordan winner, we now turn over the transmission to Jason Mayden and D’Wayne Edwards who have provided a detailed feedback review of each challenger and selected our ultimate Project Bluefoot Air Jordan Design winner: Tom Matic. Continue reading…

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Project Bluefoot recently chatted with Michael DiTullo, Design Director at Converse and Molly Carter, Director of Sports Communications at Converse on the design of the new Converse Weapon Evo. Check out the full-length, in-depth feature as posted on our daily-updated sneaker site, Counter Kicks: Part 1 / Part 2

In our latest “Design Theory” segment, we talk with Jason Mayden, Senior Footwear Designer at Jordan Brand and designer of the Air Jordan 2009 and Chris Paul lines. Jason tells us how he got hired at Jordan Brand, talks about one of the best selling Nike shoes to date which he designed, gives us a glimpse into his daily work schedule, and finally gives plenty of advice to aspiring designers looking to break into the industry and push it forward.

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Visit the Project Bluefoot: Forums for more info on this design competition.

A Project Bluefoot conversation with D’Wayne Edwards, Jordan Brand Footwear Design Director. Learn how D’Wayne got into the business, his tips for aspiring designers wanting to break into the footwear industry, what a typical work day looks like for a Footwear Design Director, his reflections on designing an Air Jordan shoe, and why design mentorship is so important.

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The Top 15 Design Finalists in the Project Bluefoot / Air Jordan XXV Design Competition are…

- Alvin Huang
- Austin Jermacans
- Ben Adams-Keane
- Brian Moughty
- Doug VanderValk
- Frederic Roy
- Joe Sattler
- John Lee
- Karabo Anoh
- Sindri P. Sigurdsson
- Titus Ares
- Tom Matic
- Weixian Wang
- Yuan Jiang
- Yurri Mial

Continue reading for Air Jordan Design Concept image boards and descriptions… (more…)

Get your Swoosh line art dusted off.

The next Project Bluefoot: Intelligent Design Competition challenge is here.

Your assignment: Design a high-performance, Nike Basketball signature shoe for The King – LeBron James.

Judging your design concepts will be Jason Petrie, Senior Footwear Designer at Nike Basketball and architect of the latest rendition in the LeBron James signature line, the Nike Air Max LeBron VII.

Official design competition rules & prizes to be posted soon.

To enter, simply register a username on our forums

This is it. Fill out the form below to enter your Air Jordan XXV design concept into the most competitive sneaker design competition on the planet. Your chance to be judged and critiqued by JORDAN BRAND designers D’Wayne Edwards and Jason Mayden awaits. Many will submit, one will win.

Do you have what it takes to become a legendary designer?

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In Part 2 of our in-depth interview with Erin Patton, we launch into his journey at Nike, where Patton became the first Director of Product and Marketing for Jordan Brand. He discusses the footwear design process, working with Tinker Hatfield on the Air Jordan XIII, the concept of marrying footwear and apparel divisions, spending time with Michael Jordan, the initial marketing and seeding strategies for launching Air Jordan product to the consumer, and simply, why it’s important to have friends.

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Like the conductor of an orchestra, Erin Patton has been in charge of arranging the proper beat, dynamic, and tempo for numerous brands, most notably as Nike’s lead architect in the creation of the Jordan Brand, in 1997, and directing the launch of Stephon Marbury’s Starbury brand, in 2006. Patton currently serves as Adjunct Professor of Sports Marketing in the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University, is the Principal of his own brand management firm, and has written a just-released book, Under the Influence: Tracing the Hip-Hop Generation’s Impact on Brands, Sports, & Pop Culture, detailing by first-hand experience the workings of the athletic footwear industry and the inner workings of a marketing mastermind.

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Assignment #1: Design the Air Jordan XXV. (Deadline: July 25th, 2009)

Project Bluefoot: Intelligent Design Competition is a monthly, theme-based competition for aspiring footwear designers to showcase their talent to the athletic footwear industry and the general public at large.

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Official Rules:

- Designers will be judged on 3 primary components: Inspiration (backstory), Sketches, and Final Rendering. One overall Final Rating will be given for each individual design and graded on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being lowest and 10 being highest), taking into account the three primary design components holistically.

- 3 graphics/pages may be submitted per designer.

- Each graphic may be maximum 800×600 pixel dimension.

- 10 Finalist Designs will be chosen from all submissions by each month’s Intelligent Design Competition judges and posted to the website for live public voting. At the end of public voting, the Top 3 Finalists with the highest public scores will be graded by a select 3 judge panel to decide each month’s Intelligent Design Competition winner.

- Any attempts to artificially manipulate or inflate ratings will result in automatic suspension from the PBF:ID Competition.

- Prizes to be announced.

- Interested? Register a screen name on our forums and post here.

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