Lead Footwear Designer, Basketball Signature Athlete

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

As our Lead Footwear Designer for Nike Basketball Signature Athlete, you will lead the creation of industry-leading footwear bringing bold concepts to life. You will solve complex design challenges and create iconic products that inspire through both function and form.

Inspired by the signature athlete, you will help define a new visual language for Nike Basketball—one that expresses sport through style, performance, and modern design. This role requires both creative ambition and strategic focus, partnering across a global brand to build scalable design systems and advance creative innovation.

The ideal candidate is a visionary designer with exceptional taste, a refined aesthetic point of view, and an unwavering commitment to craft. They bring a sharp eye for detail, proportion, materiality, and execution, consistently delivering elevated design solutions. Through strong creative execution, they will develop compelling products that resonate emotionally with consumers both on and off the court.

With a deep understanding of cultural relevance, consumer insights, and emerging trends, this individual will continually challenge industry conventions and set a high standard for creativity, desirability, and aesthetic excellence.

• Bachelor's degree in Industrial Design or related field. Will accept any suitable combination of education, experience and training
• At least 5-6 years’ experience designing and developing innovative footwear and other products
• Exceptional knowledge of design, art, and fashion, as well as passion for sport and youth culture
• Knowledge of form, color, materials, human factors, related to elevating the consumer experience
• Ability to translate consumer knowledge and insights into product solutions and narratives
• Experience in technical footwear design - basketball design is a plus
• Strong Photoshop, Illustrator skills
• Must be able to build accurate 2D technical drawings (tech packs)
• Cobbling and prototyping skills are a plus
• 3D design programs experience is a plus
• Strong sketching, illustration, and rendering skills
• Solid knowledge of manufacturing processes and materials
• Must be able to generate a broad range of concepts and solutions for each project
• Experienced with presentation programs: Keynote, PowerPoint, Acrobat, etc.
• Contribute and align to shared team culture and behaviors
• Lead + drive partnerships beyond the Design function (Marketing, Engineering, Development, etc.)
• Collaborator with a skill in connecting the dots
• Speaks up with courage for self and the team
• Open minded, good listener, receptive to candid feedback and diverse points of view
• Being a hooper is not a requirement but being passionate and curious to learn about basketball and the athlete* is.

*If you have a body, you are an athlete

**TO BE CONSIDERED FOR THIS ROLE, PLEASE PROVIDE A FOOTWEAR DESIGN FOCUSED PORTFOLIO (PDF OR URL)

WHO YOU’LL WORK WITH

You will collaborate and mentor within the design community (concept designers, industrial designers, materials, color, graphics, computational, etc.), and work hand in hand with a large project team of different professionals (product managers, developers, researchers, marketing, costing, etc.). This role reports directly the Footwear Design Director, Nike Basketball Signature Athlete.

WHAT YOU’LL WORK ON

In Nike Basketball, you will work on designs that push the possibilities of the human potential through footwear (and beyond). We expect you to explore new opportunities, take risks, and change the game! In your day to day, you will engage with project teammates on researching, gaining insights, problem solving around performance and manufacturing, working with athletes, and crafting a vast range of creative and appealing solutions, that are also sustainable and considerate of cost. With each project, you are encouraged to also participate and present the work in informal and formal reviews.

We offer a number of accommodations to complete our interview process including screen readers, sign language interpreters, accessible and single location for in-person interviews, closed captioning, and other reasonable modifications as needed. If you discover, as you navigate our application process, that you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, please complete the Candidate Accommodation Request Form.