Brianna Henley

You have a big job title. What do you actually do?
I head up all the footwear products that we create in our training categories… “Training” is anything that you would wear in the gym, outside of the gym, and while you’re doing any type of workout… I’m at the center of the project, so I work with marketing and design and production. And every time a new shoe comes out to market for Reebok, it’s kind of like our baby—except it takes twice as long to launch a shoe than it does to make an actual baby!

Can you tell us how a “shoe baby” gets made? I’m guessing it’s not, “When two big shoes love each other very much…”
No! So with the Nano X1 Adventure, we started thinking about it in November of 2019. The inspiration came from summer, really. We all love thinking about summer and the vacations that we take. Camping was becoming really popular again, even before the pandemic. Vacations were also becoming more about exploring new places, and having adventures. People just wanted to get outside, get away from technology, you know? So we said, “Women are going on these trips. They’re active and they generally have to pack light.” And one pain point I’d noticed was that shoes take up so much room in your bag when you’re packing! It’s a struggle to bring a sneaker you can wear to a workout, to a bachelorette weekend, to a day trip, to a national park, to a vacation to Machu Picchu, to Paris—wherever! And I wanted us to make that one pair of sneakers that passed “the suitcase test.”

What’s “the suitcase test”?
Can you throw this pair of sneakers into your suitcase without adding tons of weight and bulk, but adding tons of versatility and utility to what you’re packing? Because if the shoe doesn’t feel and look good enough for her to make it her one vacation sneaker, we haven’t done our job.

How do you know what women want? Do you just ask around, or do you rely on market research?
We do everything. There’s something called “primary consumer research” which means we’re literally calling up women like you and saying, “What’s in your closet right now? What do you wish was in your closet right now? Tell me everything about your workout… no really, everything.” We’ll have so many one-on-one conversations. Then we use trend forecasting firms like WGSN to look at bigger trend databases, and sales numbers in other areas, like travel or fitness. We learn a lot from current [sneakers] on the market, too, because we don’t want to make something that already exists! And then we make prototypes, which is so fun!

Is that, like, beta versions of the sneaker?
Exactly. The design team will bring sketches, material swatches, pieces of shoes from other models.

Who gets to actually test the shoe?
We send prototypes out to women all over the country with a paper survey and a link to an online survey. We’re like, “Wear these, test these, and tell us what you think!” We ask them to do 2-4 different workouts in the shoe, and to wear them for 8-10 “casual hours”—walking, going to the store, whatever. They keep a diary of how the shoe feels during every activity for 4+ weeks. So these shoes are made by women, tested by women, rated by women—it’s not just in a lab and not just with professional athletes, although of course we love them and value their feedback so much. But with the shoes I’m involved in, we also get feedback from women who just love to work out, women who are always running around because of their jobs, women who don’t go to the gym but do go on a lot of sightseeing walks… really, all kinds!

How do you ensure your shoes will support a wide variety of body types and abilities?
I’m glad you asked that, because when we talk about sneakers for everybody, we have to include bodies, too. So about 5 years ago, we scanned the feet of 1000 female athletes. And by athletes, I mean, any woman who does any sort of workout at all… We realized many people who work out a lot have more muscular feet and ankles. So, we adjusted the shape and the build of the Nano X1 Adventure to offer better support to those muscles.

How did you get your job?
So, there are some people we call “shoe dogs.” They live and breathe footwear. They’ve been doing it for 20 years. I am not one of those people! My background is more varied. I’m a generalist—I was a psychology major and I started my career in consumer insights. I worked in brand communications and marketing first, so I learned to think about “why do people want this shoe?” before I learned how to make the shoe… To be honest, when I started this job, I was a little intimidated! I had a really steep learning curve, but it really was my dream job, because it was all about creating things to make women’s lives better.

You successfully changed “tracks” mid-career. What’s your advice for women looking to do the same? I think first off, if you’re a Millennial, chances are that early in your career, you were kind of chastised for “jumping around” and switching jobs. There was a lot of pressure when you graduated college, like, “What are you going to do?” And I think that was harmful for a lot of us, because generalists end up being more successful, on the whole, than specialists… and life experience is professional experience! You want to be well-rounded so you can anticipate problems, come up with 360 solutions, and work with all types of people! So first, get rid of that stigma that you need one narrow path to expertise. Next, you want to always be thinking about what you want your next job to be like.

Like, “whose job do I want?”
Not exactly. It’s not Game of Thrones! [Laughing.] You should definitely know what other positions exist in your company and at other companies you might want to work for. Then you want to plant seeds ahead of there even being a job opening. I’ve done that a few times where I’ve identified a role that I think is amazing. And I’ve essentially said, “Hey, if this person ever moves on, or if this team ever expands, I’d love to be considered.” And that opens the door a teeny, tiny bit when it’s time to get your name into consideration earlier than other people.