HBCU President opens a footwear factory with investment from DSW
Dr. D’Wayne Edwards, a renowned footwear designer with almost four decades of experience, is making history as the founder and CEO of JEMS, the first-ever Black-owned shoe and footwear factory in the US. Edwards is also the President of Pensole Lewis College of Business & Design (PLC), an HBCU in Detroit, Michigan.
Located in Somersworth, New Hampshire, the factory was made possible by a $2 million investment from Designer Brands Inc., the parent company of DSW, and a $1 million investment from LeCrown Shoes Industry Co. JEMS will enable upcoming designers of color to produce shoes that will be exclusively sold at DSW stores nationwide, promoting diversity and inclusion in the footwear design industry.
Although Edwards will initially orchestrate the first shoe designs, other designers of color will use the factory later. The factory’s name, JEMS, is an acronym for Jan Ernst Matzeliger Studio, named after a Black inventor who changed footwear manufacturing with his 1883 patent for the lasting machine.
Edwards, who began his career at LA Gear in 1989 as an entry-level footwear designer at the age of 19 with no formal education, has designed more than 500 footwear styles and accumulated over 50 patents over the course of his career. He has won numerous honors and awards, including the Red Dot award, the Mercedes Benz Fashion award, and Business Insider’s 100 People Transforming Business. He has also designed footwear for entertainers such as Tupac, Notorious B.I.G, and Snoop Dogg, and athletes such as Derek Jeter and Michael Jordan.
In 2010, Edwards converted Lewis College of Business into the first academy in the US dedicated to footwear design, which is now known as Pensole Lewis College of Business & Design based in Detroit.
