Through periodic meetings on UDs Newark campus, via Skype, and even at the designers New York City studio, the students explored a broad spectrum of product development and merchandising activities with Davis, from materials selection, shoe design and development to branding, packaging, marketing and advertising, and more.
The best part of this project was the open sharing of ideas and different perspectives, Davis said. I encouraged the merchandising students to share their creative design ideas and the design students to delve into the marketing and business aspects of the project.
Since everyones ideas were valid, we created a safe and open collaborative environment so that they could all be heard. I was blown away by the energy, openness and desire to learn from these students. I was so proud of how the team evolved and what we created together. Women supporting women is what my brand stands for, and this was the perfect living example of it.
The students learned to think critically and distinguish between what makes an interesting design and what customers actually will buy and wear.
To actually market and design a functional, likeable shoe required us to be practical and not fall in love with every idea we had, said Jamie Weiner, a UD senior majoring in fashion design.
According to Katzenback, through each encounter, Davis impressed upon the students the importance of collaboration, listening and teamwork.
Through this [experience] I have learned how important it is to uplift and support each other as women, said Katzenback. She showed us how essential it is to see other viewpoints and how different viewpoints can come together to create something beautiful. I feel like the work we did with Ruthie really expresses that because we called ourselves warrior women and you see that in the shoes.
The footwear collection includes five signature shoes ranging from high-top sneakers to boots and strappy stilettos. All of the styles have the word warrior written somewhere on the shoe, which is something the Ruthie Davis brand is known for empowering words printed right on the shoes. The materials are unique, too, as the team decided to incorporate tech fabrics like neoprene and stretch materials to depict a modern-day Mulan warrior woman in the colors red and black, emblematic of Chinas Imperial Army.
Prior to the pandemic, at Davis invitation, the students attended the launch party for one of her shoe lines at fashion designer Christian Sirianos boutique, The Curated NYC, where Davis had a shop-in-shop. There, the students learned important lessons about networking and gained new understanding about how a single project can bring people with disparate yet complementary skills together.
Hall called Davis a gracious mentor and leader who encouraged the women to share their views.
We saw firsthand how important it was to foster open communication where everyone felt respected for their ideas and contributions, said Hall, who earned her degree in fashion merchandising.
