Pensole Footwear Design Academy founder D’Wayne Edwards is about to let the cameras into the sneaker design process for a new series.
“Lace Up: The Ultimate Sneaker Challenge” will debut on YouTube Red this fall and will go inside Pensole in Portland, Ore., where 12 competitors on four teams will compete in a version of Edwards’ master class program. The winner will get the opportunity to work on product creation at Adidas.
Each week teams will present a new sneaker inspired by a guest sneakerhead who, along with Edwards and a panel of experts, will help choose that week’s winner. Guests will include Macklemore, Jamie Chung, Stan Smith, Anthony Anderson, Fetty Wap and Ashley Graham.
TV producer Ken Mok, known for “America’s Next Top Model,” is one of the show’s producers.
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“I am humbled that YouTube found an interest in Pensole’s mission of providing free education and opportunities to aspiring designers,” said Edwards. “This show will help us reach those future students around the world that never knew jobs like this existed, by revealing the process of how sneakers are created.”
The show will be hosted by Adande “sWooZie” Thorne, who has more than 4.9 million subscribers and whose videos have over 700 million views. YouTube Red is a paid membership that gives users access to original movies and series.
