There’s nothing more powerful than women coming together to support each another.
On Wednesday evening, a crowd of nearly 300 gathered at the annual Footwear News Women Who Rock event — held in partnership with Two Ten — for cocktails, networking and conversation. The event, held at Lavan Midtown in New York, honored over 40 boundary breakers from all corners of the industry.
During the evening’s program, six boundary breakers took the stage to share valuable career lessons and talk about successful strategies for mentorship and sponsorship.
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Here, FN recaps some of the best quotes of the night.
Tracy Knauer, senior vice president of North America at New Balance: “It’s our responsibility to create the next generation of leaders. Early in my career, I thought I could walk into a conference room and basically say to the team, ‘This is what we need to do, this is how we need to get it done, so go do that.’ Well, that’s actually not what needs to happen, right? I think leaders need to listen and they need to empower their team to do the right thing, and to come up with a solution. And I’ve said time and time again, my best days are when my team does something phenomenal, and I get to watch what they do.”
Jennifer Jones, senior vice president and general merchandise manager women’s accessories, Bloomingdale’s: Women can “reimagine and change what retail could be,” the executive said. She also spoke about supporting working moms and how she can be a role model. As for priorities, she said, “I’m not asking for permission. I am telling people what I am doing as it is important to me.” And “whatever I am working on is my priority at the time.”
Kate Pinkham, vice president and general manager, Chaco and The Collective at Wolverine Worldwide: “You need to have a good understanding of the targeted consumer. It means getting to know them,” including knowing their social media posts to understand how they think.
Emily Cole, executive vice president, chief product officer and creative director, Kenneth Cole: She spoke about the company’s priority and The Mental Health Coalition that her dad, fashion designer and activist Kenneth Cole, founded to de-stigmatize mental health conditions and ensure equal access by all to vital resources. That priority in the big picture is a “culture that needs to come from the top and the values [you also] get at the top.”
June Ambrose, creative director, fashion designer and cultural architect: “[30 years ago], high fashion was not working with pop culture. So, I was able to, without asking for permission, revolutionize the genre of music and turn something that was very niche, which was hip-hop, into pop culture. And hip-hop is the number one genre of music in the world right now, and why? Because we didn’t look at it as one singular thing, we looked at it as an inclusive thing.”
Brandice Daniel, founder and chief executive officer of Harlem’s Fashion Row: Speaking about the organization’s collaboration with LeBron James and Nike on the HFR x LeBron 16, in 2018, she recounted the basketball star’s adoration for his mom: He said, ‘My mom raised me as a single black woman, she’s the strongest.’ I listened to hours of footage of him just talking about his mom, and we pulled out four words that he kept saying over and over. It was courage, dignity, loyalty, and strength. What I said was, ‘How can I find designers that really match this, where their personal stories match this story of hers?'”