Outdoor

Skate

Snow

Footwear Designer, Developer, Consultant, Educator, Author, and Problem Solver.

Extensive experience in product creation.

Trained in Industrial Design - The University of Michigian.
Experience designing: Skate shoes, Sports Bags, Golf Bags, Hiking Boots, Snowboard Boots, Water shoes, Sandals, Kite Boarding and Wake boarding Equipment...and More! 

I have experience as a Product Developer based in the USA and Far East.  Extensive Asia travel. North,South&West China, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam

Product Management Experience:
Managed Athletic shoe, outdoor boot, sandal, Wake boarding and snowboard boot product  lines.

Specialties: Footwear Production, Price Negotiations, Factory Liaison, Development process/procedure, Scheduling, Margin and Landing calculations, business planning, footwear tariff and import regulation, "Green" shoe production.

Author of the books 
How Shoes are Made
Footwear Pattern Making and Last Design 
Shoe Material Design Guide
How to Start Your Own Shoe Company
How to Spot Fake Sneakers
Cómo se hacen los zapatos
Cómo empezar tu propia empresa de calzado 
Guía para el diseño de materiales de calzado 
Patronaje de calzado y diseño de hormas
 鞋子是怎样制成的

Created The Online Footwear Training Platform The ShoemakersAcademy.com

Author of popular shoemaking and Footwear business books
- How Shoes Are Made
- Shoe Material Design Guide 
- How To Start Your Own Shoe Company
- Footwear Pattern Making and Last Design 
- How To Spot Fake Sneakers  

Footwear trainer for Fortune 500 Companies & Start ups

Footwear Design, Development and Sourcing Consultant 

In person and Remote Footwear Instruction and Coaching

Shoemakers Academy Founder, CEO, Instructor, and Top Shoe Dog 

Product Development Manager
• Responsible for the Design, Development, Sourcing, Merchandising and Quality control for a wide range of Wake boarding and Kite Boarding products.
• Responsible for product price negotiations
• Responsible for product development scheduling
• Responsible tooling price negotiations, budgeting and scheduling
• Wakeboard Product categories include Bindings, Rope & Handle, Life Jackets, Wake Skate Boards, Helmets, Accessory luggage, Sumo Ballast, Inflatable product and POP items.
• Kite board Product categories include Control system, Bindings, Foot straps and Quality.
• Responsible for product margin calculations and import duty classification.
• Frequent international development and sales travel.
Liquid Force Highlights:
• Reduced wake board binding warranties by 50%
• Quality audit kite program - reduced kite warranties by 50%
• Increased life jackets sales 100% in 3 seasons
• Increased helmet sales 125% in 3 seasons
• Aggressively cut under performing SKU's  
• Increased product margins for Vest, Binding, Rope and Ballast programs
• Launched new product patents for Wake Bindings and Life Vest programs

Director of Product Development

• Manager of highly effective footwear development team and advanced technology development team.
• Coordinated factory allocation and worked as factory liaison for footwear and raw material vendors. 
• Controlled product development schedule and streamlined the development process/procedures.
• Participated in business planning with sales, marketing and product management teams.
• Responsible for seasonal footwear price negotiations in China for all Sole Technology footwear brands including skate brands etnies, Es, Emerica and 32 snowboots. Over 500 items per season.
• Built seasonal margin projections, landed cost calculations and tariff and import regulation issues. 
• Set the direction for the advanced technology research team and developed &quot;green&quot; shoe production techniques.  Worked with legal council on footwear patent issues.
• Product manager for R&amp;D product development database build out and installation. 
• Supervised inbound product quality inspections and quality reporting.

Footwear Development Group Manager

As Project Manager for etnies surf I grew the production volume over 500% in 3 years.
• Responsible for design, development and product merchandising of all surf sandal products.  
• Tasked with incorporating surf team, retailer and distributer feedback into relevant product lines
• Negotiated surf product FOB prices and made margin calculations.
• Worked with European and Australian distributers to create business strategy including, 
definition of markets, competition, international pricing and delivery schedules. 
• Made all Surf Division sales meeting presentations worldwide / attended trade shows.
• Interacted with consumers, athletes, reps and distributors to get strategic insight for product.   
• Trend and research travel included visits to Australian and European markets.
• Took on Sr. Development role supporting all footwear product development.

Etnies Surf Sandal & Etnies All Terrain Shoe Division Product Line Manager

• Responsible for product development of all Burton’s China snowboarding boot and liner production.  
• Responsible for creating patterns, tooling and factory direct FOB negotiations.
• Created Burton's first generation hybrid stitched liner.  
• Worked with product management team to merchandise the product lines technical features and targeted FOB prices.  
• Designed and developed the first high performance 3-D compression molded EVA boot tongue. 
This feature is now the industry standard for all quality boots. 
• Developed large and complicated injection molded parts for snowboard boot step-in binding system.  
• Extensive travel to Korea and China was required. 12 weeks+ per year

Hardgoods Product Developer - Snowboarding boots

• Interfaced between the USA design center, Hi-Tec development in Taiwan and the Asian factory development staff.  
• Created technical product specifications, analyzed cost breakdowns.
• Worked directly with factory pattern makers and developers to solve design/engineering issues.
• Supervised Taiwan photo sample and mainland China sales sample production.
• Provided the USA design center with technical and design support. 
• Development experience included waterproof and steel toe boot constructions.

Hi-Tec Sports Taiwan Development Design Manager

• Responsibilities included designing uppers, selecting colors, sourcing materials and creating outsole blue prints for a wide variety of products. Designed and developed the first police bicycle shoe.
• Designed product lines for Hi-Tec Hiking and Magnum military footwear. Product range included water sport shoes, hiking boots, combat boots, hunting boots, trail running and casual shoes. 
• Worked as assistant product merchandiser for the hiking, adventure racing and military product lines.  
• The position required regular travel to Taiwan and China to deliver design briefs and review prototypes. 
• Provided design support for Hi-Tec Germany and Hi-Tec South Africa.

Designer Footwear / Assistant Merchandiser at Hi-Tec Sports USA

• Created new and imaginative designs for golf bags, sports bags and luggage. 
• Responsibilities included all phases of product creation from customer briefings to design and development to creating patterns, engineering hardware to developing colorways and logo treatments. 
• Designed golf bags for many top brands including, Hogan, Maxfli, Cobra, Lynx, Wilson, McGregor, Spalding, Taylor Made and Asics. 
• Special projects included design of dual injection plastic club dividers and portable stand mechanisms.

Product Designer for Licensed Sports / Golf  / Luggage

Find out detailed information about Wade Motawi, Footwear Designer, Developer, Consultant, Educator, Author, and Problem Solver. in Encinitas, California

Wade Motawi: Footwear Designer, Developer, Consultant, Educator, Author, and Problem Solver. in Encinitas, California

Wade Motawi

University of Michigan