Why a Footwear Designer Started Making Knives

Rick Maderis has spent more than twenty years inside adidas, Nike, Jordan Brand and Curry Brand, working on the graphics, color and storytelling that rarely get a name attached. Now he runs Burnside Knives in Portland, and you can see the sneaker brain in every piece.

Rick and I played phone tag for close to a year before this happened, and it was worth the wait. We talk about the fire drills that end up producing better work, tilting the adidas trefoil fifteen degrees and hearing about it, why retros carry more pressure than new shoes, the Doernbecher Air Jordan 15, and asking whether you're the right person for a project before you say yes. Then it's knives: how a sneaker graphic designer ended up with KNIVES on his license plate, why the handle is a magma grip and not elephant print, and the Lost Lake Easter egg hidden in the Cabrillo 2.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Coming up: the Doernbecher kid, and the other side of the river

00:30 Why this conversation took a year

01:57 The conversation starts

03:39 A coloring book and a grandfather

03:57 Art school to adidas, Jordan and Curry Brand

06:27 Is getting moved around good or bad for creatives?

10:46 Big brands vs small teams: who actually does the work

12:35 Fire drills and better work

17:41 Redrawing a grail Jordan pattern from scratch