Talk Shoes with a Real Footwear Industry Pro!
Your chance to connect, ask questions, and learn directly from an industry expert!
Join Wade Motawi, The Shoe Dog, for live, interactive sessions covering footwear design, development, manufacturing, and career opportunities. Get real-world insights, practical advice, and straight answers to your footwear questions.
Bring your questions. Get expert answers. Take your footwear knowledge to the next level!
Footwear Career Development & Coaching – LIVE Q&A
Live on Zoom
Host: Wade Motawi, The Shoe Dog
Date: Thursday, November 12, 2026
Time: 6:00 PM PT / 9:00 PM ET
Discover Career Opportunities in the Footwear Industry!
Join us for an exclusive live Q&A and career coaching session with Wade Motawi, The Shoe Dog, focused on building a successful career in the footwear industry.
The footwear industry offers exciting career opportunities in design, development, engineering, manufacturing, sourcing, merchandising, product management, and more. But how do you get started, develop the right skills, and find your place in the shoe business?
In this interactive session, Wade will break down the different jobs and career paths available in the footwear industry, explain what professionals actually do, and share practical advice on how to get started or advance your career.
Drawing on his extensive industry experience, Wade will recommend books, courses, training programs, and educational resources to help you build your knowledge and develop valuable footwear industry skills.
Whether you’re a student, aspiring footwear designer, career changer, or industry professional looking to take the next step, this session will help you explore your options and create a plan for your future.
Why Attend?
The footwear industry has many career paths beyond shoe design. Understanding the different roles, required skills, and available training opportunities can help you make smarter career decisions.
In this live coaching session, you’ll learn:
Footwear Career Paths: Explore jobs in design, development, production, sourcing, merchandising, and more.
Skills & Education: Discover what you need to know to break into the shoe industry.
Books & Courses: Get Wade’s recommendations for learning footwear design, development, and manufacturing.
Career Development: Learn how to build your experience, improve your portfolio, and find opportunities.
Live Career Coaching: Ask Wade your questions and get practical, real-world advice.
Come prepared with your career questions, discover new opportunities, and take the next step toward building your future in footwear!
How TO Use AI Technology in Footwear Development
LIVE Q & A Coaching Session
Live on Zoom
Hosts: Franck Boistel & Wade Motawi,
Date: Thursday, November 19, 2026
Time: 6:00 PM PT / 9:00 PM ET
Discover How to Use AI for Footwear Design & Development!
Join us for an exclusive live Q&A and hands-on learning session with footwear industry veterans Wade Motawi, The Shoe Dog, and Franck Boistel, focused on how to effectively use Artificial Intelligence (AI) in footwear design and development.
AI is rapidly changing how products are designed, developed, and brought to market. From generating new shoe concepts and exploring design variations to researching materials, solving development challenges, and improving communication, AI offers powerful new tools for footwear professionals. But how can you use AI effectively in your everyday work—and just as importantly, when should you NOT use AI?
In this interactive session, Wade and Franck will explore practical ways to integrate AI into the footwear development process. They will demonstrate how AI can help you generate ideas, refine shoe designs, solve technical problems, accelerate research, and streamline your workflow.
Just as importantly, they’ll discuss where AI doesn’t belong in the footwear development process. Not every task benefits from AI, and relying on it in the wrong situations can lead to inaccurate information, unrealistic designs, poor technical decisions, and wasted time. Wade and Franck will help you recognize when AI is useful, when traditional methods work better, and when human expertise and hands-on experience are essential.
Drawing on their extensive footwear industry experience, Wade and Franck will share real-world examples, useful AI tools, and practical techniques you can apply to your own footwear projects.
Whether you’re a student, aspiring footwear designer, product developer, footwear engineer, or experienced industry professional, this session will help you understand how to use AI wisely and stay ahead in the evolving footwear industry.
Why Attend?
AI is becoming an important tool in product design and development, but getting useful results requires more than simply typing a question into a chatbot. Understanding how to communicate with AI, select the right tools, and recognize its limitations can help you work smarter without compromising creativity, quality, or sound footwear engineering.
The key is knowing when to use AI, when NOT to use AI, and how to combine AI capabilities with real footwear expertise.
In this live session, you’ll learn:
AI Tools for Footwear: Discover useful AI platforms and how they can support footwear design, development, and research.
AI-Powered Shoe Design: Learn how to generate footwear concepts, explore design variations, and develop new creative directions using AI.
Prompting Techniques: Understand how to write effective AI prompts to get more accurate, useful, and professional results.
Footwear Development Applications: Explore how AI can assist with materials research, construction details, technical problem-solving, and product development tasks.
Workflow & Productivity: Discover ways to use AI to save time, organize information, improve communication, and streamline the footwear development process.
When NOT to Use AI: Learn which footwear design and development tasks are better handled by experienced professionals, traditional tools, physical testing, and hands-on technical expertise.
AI Limitations & Common Mistakes: Understand how AI can produce misleading information, technically impossible designs, or incorrect recommendations—and how to recognize these problems before they affect your work.
Live Q&A with Wade & Franck: Bring your questions, discuss your challenges, and get practical advice from two experienced footwear industry professionals.
Come prepared with your AI questions, footwear design ideas, and development challenges. Discover how to make AI a valuable part of your footwear development toolkit—without losing the creativity, craftsmanship, and technical expertise that make great shoes possible!
Missed the Live Event? Don't Miss the Knowledge!
Our live sessions may be over, but the learning doesn’t stop!
Watch Shoemakers Academy event replays featuring Wade Motawi, The Shoe Dog, and get expert insights, insider tips, and real-world answers to your biggest footwear questions.
Learn from an industry expert—on your schedule, at your own pace!
