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The first time I met Sergio Lozano it was for an informational interview. He was the Design Director for Nike Running and I had been growing as a designer in Kids. I was far from being ready for the rigors of inline Running, but I wanted honest feedback on my work. 

Sergio was unimpressed and clearly anxious about something else. Five minutes into our conversation, Sergio jumps out of his chair to grab someone he was waiting to see later - John Hlavacs. John was an immensely talented designer that had recently taken a leave of absence and Sergio wanted to catch up with him. I was a distraction. Directors have their favorites.

Five years later I’m the Footwear Design Director in Tokyo Studio. I’m reporting to a marketing director that didn’t understand any steps of the product creation process and after two months, everything was painful.

In August all of the Footwear Design leadership shows up to Nakameguro. Sergio is now the Footwear Performance Design Director. “You should report to someone on campus,” Aaron Cooper, Director of the European Studio says without blinking. John Hoke agrees. Sergio and I have dinner. 

Sergio clearly doesn’t want to the added responsibility. Perhaps he already had enough on his plate. Or maybe he didn’t think I was any good.

“I don’t know how I’m suppose to help,” Sergio tells me.

“I just need someone on campus that tells people what I’m doing if they ask,” I told him. “I get my own projects. I keep a modest set of projects for global, Asia and Japan. I take care of the biz and the buzz. I manage myself, but I need someone in Beaverton that keeps folks from complaining when there’s nothing to complain about.”

I was far from the average draw-a-hot-shoe designer at Nike. I worked the system. I found new businesses. I connected with retail. I hustled.

Begrudgingly he takes on the added headcount.

We schedule a biweekly meeting preceded by my notes on what I’m doing - a deck entitled ‘Sergio Has Questions’.

“Everybody’s happy,” Sergio would say during phone calls that lasted 5 minutes. “You’ve done a great job of managing every category you work with and their business partners.”

But he never commented on my designs. Ever.

So at one point I asked him his opinion on one of the designs I created for Running - his old category. The category was happy, but I wanted Sergio to like it. I felt like something was missing. Like it wasn’t Nike enough.

“Let’s clear up one thing,” Sergio said to me with a certain tone. “You’re a Nike designer. Period. Anything you draw is a Nike shoe. Period. So that means that Nike is you. What you do is Nike. Not the other way around.”

By no means was that the assessment of the design I had put in front of him, but it was exactly what I needed to hear. Up to that point I had never fit into the inline Nike Footwear Design world. Tinker Hatfield and Mike Aveni hired me, but they were veteran outsiders that lived in special place. Had it not been for them I would have not never been allowed into the real design engine. Not as a designer. So I never felt as though my work measured up even though I’d sold millions of pairs of shoes.

After 7 years of being at Nike, Sergio changed my entire outlook on what I was supposed to do. How I was supposed to behave. How I was supposed to work. His statement was for more than just Nike, it was for all of the design. It was for anything I did.