For Kyle Plummer, BIND ’00, shopping is an inspiration. As senior footwear and bag developer for Gravis Footwear, Plummer, 33, often finds his muse during trips to clothing and shoe stores near the company’s office in Irvine, Calif. But the buying excursions are not limited to Irvine or even southern California: Plummer and the design team at Gravis regularly travel throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia in search of the next big thing in sneakers.
The shopping sprees and jetsetting may seem luxurious, but in the $17 billion-a-year sneaker 
industry, it is the kind of exhaustive research necessary to stay in front of the fashion. His fourperson design team has to choose materials that are not only stylish and comfortable, but that can survive the concrete rigors of urban skateboarding, one of Gravis’ biggest markets.
They collect ideas from their own on-the-ground research and work with forecasting companies that help them predict what colors and materials might be the next to dominate the market. Because Plummer usually develops shoes and bags well before they arrive in stores, he has to ensure the looks aren’t dated by the time they hit the shelves.
“Trends change so much,” he says. “You want to stay ahead of the times and not focus on what is out there right now, because you don’t know if it is still going to be cool a year and a half later.”
One way that Gravis—which is owned by snowboarding giant Burton—keeps relevant is by collaborating with professional skaters, riders, and visual artists on personal designs.
“We listen to them and what details they want or what they want their shoe to look like or mimic,” says Plummer.
A designer at Gravis will then sketch two to three different versions of a shoe to send to the client for feedback.
“Then it gets passed to us, the developers, and we engineer and turn their 2-D drawings into actual 3-D samples they can hold.”
Plummer’s career in footwear began with a design co-op at running shoe giant New Balance during his senior year. He continued working there part-time during his last semester, later taking positions at water sports outfitter Rugged Shark and shoemaker K-Swiss before coming to Gravis.
“I remember buying my first pair of Gravis shoes on Newbury Street in Boston, so I was very excited to have the opportunity to work for them years later,” he says.
Even after 11 years in the footwear industry, Plummer maintains a youthful wonderment about his job.
“It is a process, but it is super fun,” he says. “It’s like a big kid’s job—I color and draw all day.”
–Kate Barlow
