The creative genius of sneaker design | Salehe Bembury

**Elise Hu** (0:04)
You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hugh.
A little while back, industrial designer and artist Salehe Bembury was unemployed, sitting on his couch, eating cereal, scrolling job listings. Not long after, he was on a plane to Milan to design sneakers for Versace. And when he looks back now on how that leap happened, he credits something surprisingly simple.

**Salehe Bembury** (0:32)
Really what that was more about was the power of asking and what that can bring you.

**Elise Hu** (0:36)
In this conversation with TED curator, Cloe Shasha Brooks, Salehe walks through, yes, pun intended, the ideas behind some of his most beloved designs. He's collaborated with New Balance, Versace and Crocs and now runs his own brand, Sponge. But the thread running through all of that is play. It's there in the Easter eggs, hidden in his designs, in the way he still comes up with designs, like the nine-year-old who once sculpted a sneaker out of clay.
And in the working whistle, he put on the back of a hiking shoe, just because it felt cool.

**Salehe Bembury** (1:09)
That was maybe a little bit of my industrial design background, you know, trying to figure out how to find utility within maybe something that doesn't have as much. But then more importantly, I think it's kind of cool to just do something first and for where there's never been a whistle on a shoe.

**Elise Hu** (1:23)
Salehe makes the case that staying playful and protecting your own creativity might be the most serious advantage you have. Whether that means asking for what you want, telling a story with what you make, or refusing to overthink your best stuff. That's coming up right after a short break.
And now our TED Talk of the day.

**Cloe Shasha Brooks** (1:55)
Salehe, thank you so much for joining us.

**Salehe Bembury** (1:57)
Thanks for having me.

**Cloe Shasha Brooks** (1:58)
So among many of your popular designs, you made Crocs cool. And this is called the Crocs Pollux clog, based on your own fingerprint mold.

**Elise Hu** (2:09)
Elise here, Cloe has just put a few photos up on the screen of the Crocs Pollux clog she's referring to. Imagine if Crocs had visible grooves that looked like fingerprints all across the shoe, even on the sole.

**Cloe Shasha Brooks** (2:22)
And what I love is that Crocs reached out to you asking if they could send you some shoes, and you said, how about we actually collaborate instead? And they said, yes. So once they said yes, how did you decide to do this specifically?

**Salehe Bembury** (2:33)
So it was a great honor because they first wanted to collaborate, and then when I sent them what I didn't know was a kid's Croc shoe, they let me know that they loved that I was thinking of the form of the Croc, which a lot of collaborators in the past were simply reskinning the Croc, maybe adding gibbets, and I was thinking of the form, and that comes from my industrial design background. So once they saw that I was interested in manipulating the form, they asked me if I wanted to be the first collaborative designer to create a Croc from scratch, which I immediately did a Birdman hand rub and said yes. And so this is the result of that. And so initially I had to make sure that I fostered and maintained the existing elements of the Croc DNA and made sure that I didn't share away the existing consumer and, you know, getting the honor of working with a brand like Crocs, you get to work with their heritage and their DNA. So I had to make sure to maintain that and then also introduce my own brand identity, put it through a new lens, and potentially speak to a new audience.

**Cloe Shasha Brooks** (3:32)
You know, it's pretty amazing because you've had a really amazing journey as a footwear designer. You started at Payless in 2009 and then you started doing collaborations with a lot of brands like New Balance, Cohan, Versace, to name a few, and now you run your own brand called Sponge. So to help paint the picture of how you forge your own path, I'd love for you to share the story that I just love, of you being on your couch, eating cereal, in a moment of unemployment, and you somehow went from scrolling on LinkedIn to convincing Versace to give you your dream job. Will you tell us that story?

**Salehe Bembury** (4:03)
Yeah, so cereal on my couch, that is a description of the image of unemployment that I was experiencing at that time.