Stephanie Howard, Founder and Creative Director, HOW AND WHY

With over 25 years of experience including a Design Director role at Nike Inc, Lead Designer at New Balance, and Innovation Director at Seventh Generation, Stephanie formed HOW AND WHY in 2010, an award-winning consulting studio working on Visual Brand Language, Product Design, and Innovation Strategy for purpose-driven companies.  Prior to this, she laid the foundation for advanced innovation strategy at Seventh Generation – voted in the Top 10 of Fast Company magazine’s Most Innovative Consumer Products Companies, and a leader in corporate responsibility. At Nike, she led the Women’s Running footwear design initiative, and later set a creative vision as Design Director of Nike and Bauer Hockey. Stephanie has worked with brands including Nike, Bauer, Reebok, New Balance, Converse, The North Face, Vans, Timberland, Titleist, Tracksmith, Smartwool, and Xtratuf.  In the sneaker world, she’s most well known as the designer of the New Balance 850, which originally launched in 1996 and was re-released in 2019.  The story behind the radical design departure has been told in interviews with sneaker authorities such as Sneaker Freaker Magazine and Bodega.

Stephanie recently joined the board of directors of Women in Sports Tech, an organization with the mission to drive growth opportunities for women throughout the sports tech landscape, and is co-founder of WiST Next Gen, an initiative to shed the light on sports tech careers for middle and high school girls, with a focus on reaching underserved communities.

Follow Stephanie's journey:

Instagram: 

https://www.instagram.com/stephanie_howandwhy/

Linkedin:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/howandwhy1/

Women in Sports Tech:

https://www.womeninsportstech.org/

How & Why:

http://www.howandwhy.biz/

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