While we’ve been writing our sneaker lists and checking them twice, the Governor of Detroit knew who was nice and worthy of a year end bill being signed into law. Unlike Schoolhouse Rock, where a bill has to become a law, there isn’t any head hanging of the bill sitting on the government steps here. PENSOLE has long been celebrated as a tool of equality and opportunity in design for the sneaker industry. Situated at the gates of Chinatown in Portland in the heart of the community, the sneaker school created by Dr. D’wayne Edwards offered the chance to work with industry vets to learn the skills needed to gain employment with companies throughout the footwear industry.
Inside of the school in Oregon is a wall of pencils and notes showing where students have been placed through the years. The PENSOLE Sneaker Championship birth footwear companies, entrepreneurs and students who have worked at giants from Nike, to outdoor brands like Timberland. The move to Detroit is a unique opportunity. A number of HBCU’s have had to close over the years, never to reopen. In Memphis, the local HBCU LeMoyne-Owen has cycled through presidents and found itself on the verge of losing accreditation, but through a rigorous plan of action and some last minute endowments the college is now thriving with new dorms and a basketball program that features former NBA player Bonzi Wells as a head coach. LOC and other HBCU’s are becoming more prominent. Jackson State University, where Coach Prime Time is leading a resurgence in sports by signing number one players, should give PENSOLE’s new college more fuel for providing a connective tissue throughout the changing eco-system of academia.
I raise the point of Jackson State because Under Armour is one of the main reasons JSU is seeing such an uptick in opportunity. Sports brands are intrinsically tied to colleges. It hasn’t been this way at HBCUs. With Eddie George and Deion Sanders in football at HBCUs, sports and by default sneakers will become more prominent at these colleges. One only has to look at Florida A&M and their sponsorship by LeBron’s signature line with Nike.
PENSOLE is in the unique position of having worked with companies like Foot Locker and via partnerships with Allbirds and a host of brands, New Balance, and Cote et Ciel to name a few. The reopening of Lewis in Detroit finds itself with a major support in “founding members College for Creative Studies, Target, and The Gilbert Family Foundation.” Colleges don’t just reopen. It takes a concentrated effort for every thing to work. “Pensole Lewis College of Business and Design is expected to open in 2022, on the campus of the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. House Bill 5447 was sponsored by Rep. Joe Tate, D – Detroit, House Bill 5448 was sponsored by Rep. Pamela Hornberger, R – Chesterfield, and copies can be found here and here.”
Notes: I always look at sneaker industry discussions with extended consideration for opportunities. Opening a sneaker school in Detroit is a power move. Why do I say this? StockX. The recent HBO Max show, The Hype, was StockX’s first true foray into content. StockX, unlike other third party platforms, has focused considerably on gaining ground beyond just hype and resale, and they have focused on growing their demographics into the mainstream. PENSOLE students will undoubtedly be connected StockX providing an opportunity for collabs with the e-commerce giant and opening the door for private label opportunities. Imagine being a business with a distribution system in place and access to some of the most creative minds in sneaker design… This could be a serious disruptive force for the industry. Think about that.
