Coloring outside the lines is all in a day’s work for Brian Moughty, BSM ’11, athletic footwear designer at Pensole.
“It’s important to continuously push the envelope,” he says of his creative endeavors. Projects include signature footwear for Boston Celtics player Rajon Rondo, including a “Boston Strong” sneaker in honor of bombing victims from the 2013 Boston Marathon. Also on his roster: Major League Baseball’s Ryan Howard and current pro basketball players Luis Scola and Chandler Parsons, as well as NBA Hall-of-Famer Hakeem Olajuwon.
It sounds like an obsession, and it is; one that dates back to fourth grade, when patent leather accents on the Air Jordan XI caught Moughty’s attention.
“I always loved sports and drawing, and when my interest in sneakers grew I realized that I could combine my two passions,” he recalls. “From that point on it became an obsession.”
Online design contests during high school connected him to a community of designers; among them was D’Wayne Edwards, former design director at Jordan Brand.
“D’Wayne reached out to mentor me throughout college and gave me a scholarship when he founded Pensole design academy,” Moughty notes.
Moughty kept his dream in check, though, particularly when he changed his major from industrial design to business management. “I knew it would be good to have a business background for the industry, and in case things didn’t work out.”
But things did work out. Amid studies at Wentworth, Moughty completed the Pensole course, co-founded 4Cent Design, and was a finalist in the Nike Basketball Future Sole competition. With a job offer in hand, he graduated and headed to Oregon for a post at Pensole.
“For so long, I had always just been able to draw my ideas, but now I can actually see them in real form—even on professional athletes. It is truly a dream come true.”
—Kristen L. Walsh
