Design - From Desire to Reality

DESIGN - From DESIRE TO REALITY THREADTECH 2/25 AT 7PM A REVEALING DISCUSSION WITH STEVEN KEATING SPORTSWEAR AND LIFESTYLE CREATIVE DIRECTOR FROM UNPAID INTERN TO RIHANNA FENTY AND PUMA, TO DESIGNING USAIN BOLT’S OLYMPIC GOLD METAL TRACK SPIKES AND NOW CONVERSE SR. CREATIVE DIRECTOR OF GLOBAL FOOTWEAR. Steven Keating is a Sportwear and Lifestyle Creative Director with over 15 years of experience as a footwear and apparel manager, design manager and creative director. Most recently Steven was the Creative Director of PUMA's Running Team and will be starting a new role at Converse as Sr. Creative Director of Global Footwear. Hear what Steven did that was different which opened the doors to opportunity. Steven Keating is an award-winning creative director in the performance and lifestyle product design field with over 15 years of experience. Using his thoughtful leadership style and design thinking strategies, Steven has led large teams of designers for the past 10 years and has been directly involved in the commercial turnaround of Puma and Saucony. Most recently Steven held the position of Creative Director of Running, Training & Golf at Puma. In this position, Steven was responsible for setting the seasonal creative direction, including color, graphic direction, product design direction, innovation concepts, and Olympic design strategy. Steven is personally passionate about sustainability and was driving many of Puma’s sustainable initiatives, including the First Mile collaboration. Prior to this, Steven was Puma’s Head of Design for Running/Training Footwear. Steven managed a team of nine designers who led the large growth and turnaround of Puma. This included the Running/Training business unit and the launch of Puma’s Basketball category, which eventually led to the return of Puma as a leader in the industry. During this time Steven also managed the Rihanna Fenty collaboration, personally designed Usain Bolt’s Olympic Gold Medal track spikes for the 2012 and 2016 Olympics and most recently designed the 2020 Olympic kits for Puma’s 14 federations. Prior to his work at Puma, Steven worked as a graphic designer and footwear designer at Saucony and Saucony Originals. In this role, Steven was responsible for product design for both performance and lifestyle products and collaborations such as Kith and Alife. During this time, Steven started Saucony’s sustainable initiatives, including the vegan collection and membership to the Conservation Alliance. Steven holds a BFA from the University of Massachusetts and an MBA from Babson College, Olin School of Business. Steven is also an alumnus of the AIGA Business Perspectives for Creative Leaders from the Yale University School of Management. Steven lives with his wife Jamie, 5-year-old son Wyatt and 6-year-old black lab Smoke in Concord, MA. Steven’s first childhood memory of his shoe collection was a pair of red Chuck Taylor All-Stars. He’s been secretly wearing Converse ever since.