Also called: Footwear Developer, Shoe Development Manager
Takes a sneaker or boot sketch and works with materials suppliers and factories until it becomes a shoe you can actually buy.
A designer hands you a wild sneaker sketch with a see-through sole, and it is your job to figure out if that can be built. You pick foams and leathers, check samples for glue marks and stitching, and trade late-night video calls with a factory in Asia about a heel that keeps peeling. Some trips you watch the first pairs come off the line.
Estimated from industry salary surveys at major athletic brands; BLS does not track this title separately.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 4 years after high school. Bachelor's in product design, apparel or footwear design; a few schools (like Portland's PCC and Pensole Lewis College) offer footwear-specific programs.
Ways in: 4-year college, Certification, On-the-job training. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Footwear Design, Industrial/Product Design, Apparel Design, Materials Science.
Growing about average. No BLS projection; jobs cluster near big brands in Portland, Boston and Southern California.
Low risk in 5 years, medium in 10. AI renders and 3D tools speed sampling, but working with materials and factories to make a shoe wear right stays human.
Classes: Art, Drafting/CAD class, Business class.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.