DAAP alumnus Omar Bailey returns to share his journey from footwear designer to entrepreneur
Event Information
DAAP alumnus Omar Bailey returns to UC to share his journey from designing sneakers as a child to working with global footwear brands and launching his own design and innovation company.
At seven years old, Omar Bailey began drawing sneakers in his parents’ New York home. He kept drawing them, eventually turning that childhood passion into a career spanning global footwear brands, celebrity collaborations, product development and entrepreneurship.
Now, the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP) alumnus is returning to campus to share his experience with students, alumni and the Cincinnati community.
Bailey will speak from 6-7:30 p.m. Aug. 26 in the DAAP Auditorium, Room 5401. The event is free and open to the public.
Bailey’s career has included footwear design and product development for companies including New Balance, Timberland, K-Swiss and Adidas. He has also designed footwear for artists and athletes, including Jay-Z, Lady Gaga and Jalen Ramsey. His career eventually led him to the Adidas YEEZY Innovation Lab, where he served as a footwear designer and helped develop new approaches to footwear innovation.
His path began at DAAP, where he studied industrial design and developed an early specialization in footwear. His professional experiences through co-op and internships helped connect his design education with the footwear industry, establishing a foundation for the career that followed.
Bailey's career also demonstrates the range of opportunities available to designers beyond traditional practice. After years working across design, development and manufacturing, he turned his experience toward entrepreneurship and founded FCTRY LAb, a Los Angeles-based prototyping studio and venture lab.
FCTRY LAb works with creators and brands to develop physical products, bringing together design, prototyping and manufacturing. The studio reflects Bailey’s interest in making the product development process more accessible to designers and entrepreneurs and creating pathways for new ideas to move from concept to production.
His entrepreneurial path has required him to move between creative practice, business, manufacturing and collaboration, areas that increasingly intersect in contemporary design careers.
Book cover of Omar Bailey's "Heart & Sole."
Bailey recently added author to his list of accomplishments with the launch of his autobiography, Heart & Sole, which chronicles his journey from his childhood interest in sneakers through his career in footwear and entrepreneurship.
His return to DAAP comes at a time when students are preparing to enter an industry that continues to evolve rapidly. Bailey’s experience offers a firsthand look at the opportunities and challenges that come with building a career in one of the world's most competitive creative industries.
But the Aug. 26 event is about more than footwear.
Bailey’s journey illustrates how a design education can become the foundation for a career that extends across disciplines and how designers can create their own opportunities rather than simply pursue existing ones. His experience offers students an opportunity to learn about the creative, technical and entrepreneurial decisions that happen behind the products people use every day.
His return also reflects the lasting connection between DAAP and its alumni. After building a career that has taken him from Cincinnati to some of the biggest names in global footwear, Bailey is returning to the college to share what he has learned with the next generation of designers.
For DAAP students, alumni and the broader Cincinnati community, the event is an opportunity to hear directly from a Bearcat who has continued to build, experiment and create new opportunities throughout his career.
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Featured image at top of Omar Bailey. Photos/provided
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