Project + Exec is a new series where I’ve decided to seek out footwear executives who are minorities (Black, Latino, Indian, Native American, Asian men and women) who are doing some dope work, but are being overlooked by the larger media outlets. It’s my small part. I really hope you look more into the brands and people behind them.
Source: https://bridgetheidea.com/
I took a break from writing the Project + Exec articles because what I wanted were people who live a life where sneaker culture is tied into their daily existence in a seamless and natural manner. I chose one of Chi-Town’s finest as the subject this time around because if we have Chicago in the house, then we have a connection to two of the most important people in sneaker culture, Michael Jordan and Kanye West. If we play six degrees of separation Kanye connects to Common, who played in a basketball movie and is one of the dopest emcees in the history of Chicago. This also links us to the foundation of Hip-Hop in the Last Poets.
Do you know who actually worked on the video as the production manager and captured every element of Chicago, Hip-Hop and The Last Poets? Parde.
Parde writes copy. I could have written that in a more impressive way, but I needed to remain understated because his work is about more than the words that bring a narrative around a product to life. Parde’s work ranges from screenplays, to production manager of music videos, to generating ads like this:
The reason these project + execs are important is because there are students and young people out there who don’t realize there are jobs available in marketing where you can generate both the words and the imagery around the things that we find interesting. The Miller project above was supported via a storyline where Parde actually created a woman superhero (and short film) to contribute to the narrative around the product. His 15 years of work as a creative in the marketing industry makes him a project + exec that you should get to know. This year while still working on screenplays he’s turned his attention to the sneaker industry by capturing photographs of classic footwear as art (check out the Jordan 2 picture at the head of this post). He has also worked with brands like Reebok as a Writer where he created the captions around Scarlett Johansson’s I Am More.
These are the small jobs that sneakerheads don’t even know exists because they are so seamlessly integrated into the things we see when checking for kicks. Parde has a dope website that delivers insight into the multitude of projects he’s worked on over the years. Take a few minutes to visit the site and learn more. https://bridgetheidea.com/