Footwear Designer II - Special Projects

Overview

At OOFOS, our mission is to make people feel good through our proprietary OOfoam™ technology and innovative footbed design, company culture, and community initiatives. We prioritize empathy, inclusivity, and creativity, leaving a lasting sense of WOW! We are committed to providing exceptional experiences for both our customers and employees, fostering a trusted and inclusive environment. You’ll have the autonomy and flexibility to develop your career and contribute to our innovative products, that enable people to live life in ultimate comfort.

We are seeking a Footwear Designer II - Special Projects to advance our agile, fast-to-market initiatives, with a primary focus on high profile brand collaborations, close-to-market products, and off-inline calendar projects.

In this role, you will work outside the traditional seasonal development cadence, transforming consumer insights, cultural trends, and partner briefs into compelling, commercially relevant product. Using existing tooling and key OOFOS silhouettes, you will create elevated color, material, finish (CMF), and graphic executions designed for rapid development and commercialization. This role combines speed, cultural awareness, creative storytelling, and strong technical execution, partnering closely with Product Management, Development, Marketing, vendors, factories, and external partners to bring timely, differentiated concepts to market while maintaining the OOFOS brand aesthetic, quality, and commitment to comfort.

Key Responsibilities

• Quick-Turn Design Execution: Design for off-calendar and close-to-market initiatives using rapid-turn material stories, trend-driven colorways, and custom graphic treatments on existing tooling models. Translate consumer insights, trend research, and brand strategy into compelling, commercially viable product concepts that elevate the OOFOS brand.
• Collaboration & Special Projects: Design elevated material, color, and finish (CMF) packages for brand, retail, and influencer partnerships. Translate partner brand identities into unique graphic treatments, print applications, and surface embellishments that enhance the OOFOS aesthetic while maintaining the brand's focus on comfort and design.
• Agile Tech Pack Delivery: Create precise, execution-ready graphic, color, and material tech packs optimized for fast-track production and quick factory turnarounds. Partner with Development and factories to ensure design intent, quality, materials, colors, and graphic applications are executed accurately.
• Material & Surface Innovation: Apply innovative textiles, prints, treatments, and graphic techniques that can be applied rapidly to existing products. Partner with Development and Innovation to explore new materials, constructions, and surface applications that differentiate and elevate OOFOS.
• Cross-Functional & Partner Alignment: Collaborate closely with Product Management, Development, Marketing, Graphic/Materials vendors, factories, and external partners to maintain fast-track schedules without compromising quality. Support product reviews and presentations to effectively communicate design concepts and recommendations to internal stakeholders.
• Cultural & Trend Scouting: Continuously monitor street culture, fashion, graphic design trends, consumer insights, global footwear trends, and competitive quick-strike releases to identify immediate white-space opportunities and inform design direction and brand differentiation.

Qualifications

• Experience: 4+ years of footwear design experience, with a strong portfolio demonstrating expertise in rapid-turn projects, advanced CMF execution, graphic application, or collaboration products, and footwear design from concept through execution.
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Footwear Design, Industrial Design, Graphic Design, Product Design, or related field.
• Technical & Visualization Skills: Advanced proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop) with a deep focus on pattern design, print application, and color theory. Excellent sketching, visualization, and storytelling skills required. 3D visualization (Rhino, Blender, or similar), PowerPoint, and AI driven rendering proficiencies are a plus.
• Footwear, Material & Graphic Expertise: Strong knowledge of footwear materials, manufacturing processes, textile construction, print/dye methods, graphic application techniques (e.g., screen print, sublimation, heat transfers, molded graphics), and color-matching processes. Shoemaking experience preferred. Experience developing fully new projects (including new uppers and tooling) is preferred.
• Speed & Flexibility: Proven ability to manage fast deadlines, pivot quickly based on market trends, and manage multiple quick-turn projects simultaneously.
• Cultural & Creative Intuition: Deep passion for sneaker culture, streetwear, fashion, graphic design, and lifestyle trends with the ability to translate cultural insights into relevant product.
• Innovation & Business Acumen: Ability to balance creative innovation and consumer relevance with brand and business objectives.
• Collaboration: Excellent communication, collaboration, and follow-up skills, with the ability to work effectively across teams and drive projects through completion.

Leadership Behaviors

• OOsoul Fit: Positive, adaptable, and team-first player who embraces feedback and demonstrates a strong desire to make people feel good and live the OOFOS brand ethos.
• Proactive Executor: Highly self-motivated and able to independently initial trend concepts or brand partner briefs into execution-ready graphic and material specs independently.
• Project Driver: Highly motivated with the ability to prioritize and manage multiple projects, competing priorities, and deadlines.
• Creative & Brand-Minded: Strong aesthetic sense with the ability to evolve the brand’s visual language while maintaining consistency.
• Curious & Solution-Oriented: Forward-thinking self-starter who identifies opportunities, analyzes challenges, and develops creative solutions and strategies.
• Human-Centered: Passionate about comfort, performance, and creating thoughtful, consumer-focused design.

Job Type: Full Time - Exempt, Hybrid based in Braintree, MA (Minimum 3 days onsite).

OOFOS is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We recruit, hire, train and promote without discrimination due to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship, disability, military leave or veteran status, genetic information, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state or local law.

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